The Hunter
by Kur0Kishi
Summary: A certain blonde that isn't very good with staying within the rules, a wild card; the Joker. A black haired swordsman that hides a checkered past and fears underneath his black cloak. A girl that is just looking for a way out of the prison named AINCRAD joins them on a journey with their lives in the balance. SAO, a reality that is defined by one's sword.
1. The Joker

**The Hunter Chapter 1**

**The Joker**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic. **

So here I am, as an avid fan of SAO for nearly 4 years, before it became as popular as it is now, finally making a combination fanfic of my two favorite fandoms thanks to a certain friend of mine egging me on. Then again, it was probably bound to happen, it just happened earlier than expected. Did you know that a category for Sword Art Online did not exist until early this year?

**Soundtrack List**

Two Steps from Hell - Strength of a Thousand Men

******The Hunter******

"KIRITO!"

"NARUTO!"

"DUCK! You retard!"

"Is that what you're supposed to say to someone that's about to die!?" A raven haired boy screamed back as he hit the floor.

A blood red light flashed right above, barely cutting off a few strands of black hair on its way to its target.

A blazing spear pierced the right eye of the Kobold Lord; last boss of the First Floor. It teetered for a moment before falling over backwards with a massive rumble.

******The Hunter******

Sword Art Online

The first, and most awaited game of the century, if only by virtue of being the first game to take fully take advantage of the Nerve Gear's Virtual capabilities, FullDive, unlike the many subpar and unsatisfying mini games and puzzles that had flooded the market for years before the Sword Art Online had been announced, where one could only walk for barely a few paces before encountering a solid wall and operate within the specified, tiny parameters.

Which was why a blue eyed blonde could only vibrate in place, as he placed the Nerve Gear, a helmet shaped contraption on his head, anxious to enter FullDive, after finally obtaining a copy, one of only 10000 released, by queuing three days outside his local game store before the official release date.

"Link Start!" He intoned with visible and audible excitement, and just like that, his brain was disconnected to the real world and redirected by the Nerve Gear into a Full Dive. The difference between the still, pale body and the flushed, excited boy moments earlier was unsettlingly startling.

If only he had known how bad the difference could been.

Blue eyes opened to a massive vortex of swirling colors and swiveled around excitedly as he heard whirring and sounds, tinkling and water flowing, signs that the Nerve Gear was checking the available resources and compatibility.

A chime signaled that the connection was perfect and a line of floating text, in bold black slowly faded into existence in front of the boy.

'**Complete Upload, Green.'**

'**Checking complete.'**

'**Log in/Register?'**

He lifted one hand, marveling at how natural it felt to move within the virtual world, and touched the **Log In **button.

'**Langguage: Japanese'**

'**Account: ********

'**Password: *********

**Creation Character:**

**Beta test data still available.**

**Would you like to use it?**

**Yes  
**

**Enter Now?**

He smiled and said the one word that would change the rest of his life, **"Yes."**

******The Hunter******

A tall, muscular man, with a long blonde pony tail and perfect facial features appeared out of a cloud of blue lights, landing softly on the earthy ground a few inches away.

Sharp blue eyes that gleamed like sapphire gems opened, gleaming with excitement, and he immediately took off towards to the nearest Japanese style restaurant. It was time to get back his partner, a partner that he had left back in the beta, and had carried his regrets ever since. There was no guarantee that it would still be here, since it was technically a bug after all, but there was no harm in trying.

"Yo, ba-chan." He cheerfully greeted the old woman manning the oden store. He knew of course that she was just an NPC, and that no amount of flattery or manners would help lower prices, but then again.

"Good afternoon, welcome to my store." She replied with a toothless grin and a polite bow, "What will you be having today?"

"One whole pack of fried tofu please." Naruto said with a grin as he checked his inventory to confirm that he still had the Cols that were carried over from the beta test.

"Hai. Here you go." The NPC grinned cheerfully as she handed him a pack wrapped in oil paper. Naruto promptly accepted it gratefully and stored it into his inventory with a burst of blue sparks.

Then he bought a simple carving knife, some potions and a beginner's spear from the nearest general store and immediately headed out into the field, towards the deepest part of the forest at the southern end of the floor, where he knew a secret dungeon was located. He gripped his spear and grinned as it glowed a bright blue, signaling the starting movement of the basic spear skill, Thrust, in preparation to run it through a skeleton boar, a level 3 mob.

Considering the fact that he had logged in directly when the server had officially started, and that the level of the mobs here were higher than the recommended ones for a beginner, he doubted that anyone had cleared this mini dungeon yet, so he was fairly confident that he could not only clear it, gain his partner back and gain some levels faster than most of the other players. One of the benefits of being a beta tester, he thought happily as he slaughtered his way through floor after floor.

"Faster, faster," he began muttering as he dodged another boar charge, about the only thing they could do here, and retaliated by running his spear into the boar's side,

The boar screeched a death rattle as it thrashed, stuck on the end of the spear that was continuously causing it more and more damage, before it froze and shattered into a shower of polygons, "Faster, faster, need to be faster…"

He barely even noticed that he had just reached level 2, preferring to jump through the next hole in a great hurry. Unlike the normal dungeons that linked floor to floor, which slowly ascended, these ones slowly moved downwards in spiral. Similarly, there really wasn't much point to mini dungeons like these ones, the only real reward they gave aside from experience were crafting materials for weapons and armors, which wasn't very useful at lower levels since there were no craftsmen, not to mention far more expensive than it was worth to craft a unique piece of equipment with the material.

When the blonde landed in a crouch at the bottom of the hole, he looked up and grinned.

A massive gate, black, intimidating and about twice the height of a full grown man, stood at the very end of an empty path.

Without hesitation, the blonde pushed off powerfully and began moving at a brisk run towards the portal. The closer he got to the giant iron gates, the larger the smile on his lips and the stronger his legs pumped, sending the stamina meter all over the place. He slapped one hand on the cold iron of the gate and burst through it in one move, eyes wildly looking around the familiar chamber, lit by rows of floating fire spirits, in keeping with the ghost theme of the dungeon, on each side of the wall.

At the end of the hall, something massive moved in the gloom, the sound of four feet or paws hitting the cold earthen floor as the monster lumbered out of shadows, gave him hope that the bug still existed, only to crash it moments later as a massive skeleton, a boar, with tusks as long as his legs were long. Pieces of rotting flesh clung to its ribs and a disgusting smell wafted from its body.

Golden hair obscured his blue eyes as he shook slightly in disappointment, they had changed the final boss of the dungeon. The boar roared, despite the fact that it lacked any vocal cords to do so with, snapping the blonde out of his catatonia, rolling away from a massive paw that smashed the spot he had been standing at with barely a second to spare. Showing far more intelligence and maneuverability than it should have, the boar jumped backwards and immediately charged at him again Hefting his spear with an iron grip, Naruto rolled underneath the boar's snapping jaw and thrust it upwards, shoving it straight into where the boar's brains should have been.

The wooden pole snapped, leaving the metal spike at the end embedded in the bone of its skull and nothing but a piece of shattered shaft in his hands.

Looking up, he took note that that single attack had managed to drain the skeleton boar of half of its single hp bar. Unfortunately, the boar took that moment of inattention to slam its sharp hooves on the blonde, smashing his arm and sending his hp into the yellow zone.

The blonde gritted his teeth and rolled away, a small icon appeared at the top right of his HUD, showing that he had lost a limb and consequently, a percentage of his core stats. Growling, the blonde got up and ran towards the boar, his face twisted with an expression of great focus, broken shaft held in one hand. His skeleton jaw seemed to grin before the boar lunged forward, massive jaw opened to snap him in half.

A small smile appeared, and he back flipped, narrowly avoiding his death, not that it would have mattered but it would have been a pain to make his way through the respawns, and landed right on top of the giant boar's skull in a crouch.

He smiled wryly and drove the butt of the broken shaft directly into the glinting point of the spearhead sticking out of yellow bone.

The boar immediately froze in place, and its structure seemed to phase unstably for a moment before it truly died with a shattering of blue crystals, sending Naruto tumbling to the ground now that he lost his support. The moment the boar died, the flickering orange light steadied, providing clear light and chasing ever y shadow away from the chamber.

Groaning slightly, the blonde stood up and made his way towards the big golden chest that sat atop a dais. Tapping it gently, a small menu appeared out of thin air and the blonde selected the _Open_ option without a word.

A block of heavy black wood appeared, floating above the treasure chest, nearly as tall and thick as him, sighing, the blonde tapped the block of wood, _Bone Wood,_ and sent into his inventory.

He gave a tired and disappointed sigh, "Guess I'll try again tomorrow." He muttered as he pulled up his menu and began looking for the _Log Out_ button.

"Hmm… that's weird. It's not there…"

Just then a circle of blue light appeared around his feet and waist, adding even more to his confusion, "A teleport circle?"

Well, it wasn't too strange, Naruto figured as his vision was slowly obscured by bright blue lights, a forced teleport of every player in the field to the City of Beginnings wasn't really too unexpected if there was a massive bug, the only difference it made to him was that Argus would clearly get some bad rep over this mess.

******The Hunter******

One month into the game, two thousand people had lost their lives.

The hope that outside help would come was crushed mercilessly; not even a peep had gotten through. Or if there was, no one alerted anyone else to it.

He hadn't seen it himself, but they said that the panic and the madness that took hold of the players when they realized that they really couldn't get back was unbelievable. Fear, chaos, despair, madness reined. It was a common sight to see people crying and others wailing in the City of Beginnings, some even tried to dig up the ground of the city saying that they were going to destroy this world as a way of rebelling. Of course, all buildings were given statuses as non-destructible objects, so this attempt failed without any results to show for it.

They say that it took days for the players to accept the situation and think of what to do afterward.

To be absolutely honest, he had fared no better. He had secluded himself in an inn, using what remained of his Col, staring at the wall as day turned into night, again and again. Since there was no official method of keeping time, he lost count of how long he stayed in his room, using the small carving knife that he had bought in his first hour into the game to cut random shapes into the massive block of wood.

By pure accident, he had cut himself. Being in the city where the Safety Net operated, it was only natural but his hp would not reduce no matter what he might have been capable of doing. However, what really snapped him out of his shock was the fact that he could see into his hand, through the gash made by his knife.

It was supposed to be deep red, warm and wet; instead it was blue, with spinning codes and something resembling a wireframe made of lights.

His mortality. His Death.

And he heard the voice of his grandmother, a strong woman who owned a hunting range and taught her own brand of archery, who had taken care of him ever since he was a kid and his parents had died, talking to him in a soothing tone, the way she always did when he had nightmares.

He stabbed his hand another time and swore that he would live to meet her again, and say, "Okaeri, baa-chan."

With a renewed vigor, he continued to carve the block of wood into something usable.

The very next day, he obtained a new spear and began clearing the fields and gaining levels using his knowledge from the beta test.

It was one month after that when news spread that the first floor's boss room had finally been found, and there would be a strategy meeting being held in the City of Beginnings. Which was some of the best news that he had ever heard. Despite having started out later than most of the front line fighters, the fact was that no progress could be made unless they cleared the first floor because of the slowly decreasing benefit margin from killing monsters, which basically meant there was a whole bunch of level 20 people sitting around with nothing to do unless they planned on killing thousands upon thousands of level 6 monsters to reach level 21, enabled him to catch up in terms of levels.

"Yo, Kirito." A blonde man dressed in a bulky cloak that Kirito assumed hid his heavy armor and a simple wooden spear strapped to his back nonchalantly greeted a raven haired boy in simple leather armor with a cheerful smile.

Black eyes glanced at the man before turning back to the entrance to the stadium, "…Joker." He replied with a nod, "You here for the meeting as well?"

"I keep telling you just call me Naruto." The blonde replied with a cheerful slap on the stoic boy's back, eliciting a wry smile at his cheerfulness. Unlike many of the other players that he knew, the friendly blonde man, whose avatar was, fittingly enough, named Joker, seemed to lack any sort of privacy, or sensitivity for that matter, at all and insisted on telling everybody, and anybody his real name. No matter how Kirito tried to ignore and distance himself from people, the blonde pretty much just ignored his efforts and treated the raven haired boy like a friend unlike everybody else.

Then again, he seemed to pretty much treat everyone like that anyway, constantly joking, friendly, cheerful and annoying.

Kirito didn't exactly know the blonde personally, the only reason they were even on speaking terms was because the blonde always seemed to know the best places to grind, and coincidentally bumped into Kirito on a semi regular basis outside said spots. That alone told him that the blonde was more than likely to be a beta tester, just like him.

Naruto hefted his spear and wrapped one arm around the black eyed boy's neck in an overly friendly gesture, "C'mon, can't let the party start without the main characters, eh?"

He rolled his eyes, and ducked out of the neck hold, walking away without another word as a comically crying blonde followed behind.

The two of them took a seat at the very back of the amphitheater, right in the middle at the lowest part of the stadium was a blue haired man dressed in light chainmail, the best kind of armor possible for the first floor, as he addressed the gathered players. Speaking of which….

As the knight who called himself Diabel began speaking, he listened to the speech with half a mind as he glanced at the bulky man beside him. Kirito had never seen him fight before despite bumping into him quite often.

The blonde obviously used a spear, a mid range weapon which had some of the highest damage per hit in Sword Art Online, offset by its slow attack animation and weight. Because of the weight, spear users were very slow in battle, necessitating heavy armor to improve survivability because they simply couldn't move fast enough avoid attacks. The problem here was that heavy armor would not be available until the fourth floor, so what was the blonde hiding under that heavy cloak?

Not to mention that simple, plain spear was a level 1 weapon, something that could be bought easily from any store, someone like him that apparently knew all the best spots could have gotten something way better by now.

He shook his head slightly, "It's not my problem. Focus on the problem in front of you."

"Is this seat taken?" a new voice joined them as a new player joined the duo at the back of the stadium.

Kirito and Naruto looked up to see a player, fully swathed in hooded robes that obscured all his or her defining features, "Everyone else here seemed to have groups already, and they said I couldn't join the boss battle without a group. And you two seemed to be the only ones left." He reluctantly muttered.

"We're a group?" Kirito commented blandly, "I must've missed that memo."

"We're a group; Mr. Sourpuss here is just having a bad day." Naruto cheerfully assured the newcomer, pulling down the menu and sending the two of them an invite, "Feel free to sit with us. I'm Naruto, and the wet towel is Kirito."

Reluctantly, the two accepted his invitation. Kirito glanced to the top left of his HUD, as did Naruto to see the name of their new friend.

Without further comment, the three of them decided to turn back to the meeting.

"Does everyone have a party already?" the blue haired knight asked the gathering, hearing a mumble of agreement, he smiled, "Well then…"

"Wait a moment! Before we continue, there's something that has to be said!" a new, low and gravelly voice that contrasted with Diabel's soothing tone, interrupted the session with a Kansai dialect.

A cactus headed man, wearing simple leather armor stood up near the bottom of the amphitheater, "I am Kibaou." He proclaimed boldly, "As I already mentioned, there has be something that needs to be said." His beady eyes swept around the arena, landing particularly at the very back where three people sat, away from the crowd, causing Kirito to shake a little as he realized what was happening.

"There are at least 10-15 people here that need to apologize to everybody else."

"Apology? To whom? From who?" was constantly being muttered all around the arena.

The knight that was still standing behind him on the fountain edge, Diabel, raised both hands in question. Without looking at him, Kibaou spit out in hatred.

"Ha, isn't it obvious. To the 2000 now dead people. Those guys had who had already played the game before, monopolized all the most important resources, selfishly advancing themselves while 2000 people died uselessly in the first month we were here! Isn't that right?!"

At that moment, the low buzzing in the forty people audience cut short; all went silent. What Kibaou wanted to say, everyone finally understood.

In the oppressive silence, only the evening BGM from the NPC orchestra played quietly. No one said anything. If anything was said, then at that moment you might be labeled as one of «those guys»—such a fear was probably there. No, not probably.

At the very least, Kirito was clearly caught by that fear until a large reassuring hand landed on his shoulder, unspoken reassurance from the older man, his eyes sharply piercing the cactus headed man. Calming down slightly, he nodded in thanks. Nothing needed to be said or explained. They both knew the other were beta testers, and that was enough.

"—Kibaou-san. The people you are referring to… are the original beta testers, right?" Diabel with his arms crossed, showed the most stern look up till now as he asked for confirmation.

"Obviously." With the thick metal pieces of his scale mail clinking over the leather he wore, Kibaou took a glance at the knight behind him and continued boldly.

"Those beta testers, on the day this shitty game started, dashed from the Starting City and disappeared. They left behind over 9000 people who didn't know left from right. They monopolized good hunting grounds and profitable quests, got stronger without a care for those behind. ...There should be some in this group, hiding their beta status, some sly people thinking of joining the boss fight. I want them to kneel down once, to the party members their lives depend on. That's what I want to say!"

Like his name, FangKing, he cut off his condemnation with a bite of his teeth. Still, no one said anything, except one.

"May I speak?"

At that time, a rich and forceful baritone resounded in the evening plaza. From the left side of the crowd, a silhouette moved forward.

Huge. His height was easily over 180cm, probably. An avatar's size, or even the player's natural abilities in real life was not supposed to have any effect on his stats, but in this case, the two-handed battle-axe slung over his back actually seemed light weight to him.

His appearance, too, was impressive and did not lose to his weapon. A fully bald head, and chocolate-colored skin. However, the chiseled face was so fitting you might think it was customized. Not Japanese... instead of saying that, maybe he was not even human.

The muscular giant moved forward to the fountain, lightly bowed to the other players, and then turned to the dramatically different in height Kibaou.

"My name is Egil. Kibaou-san, what you wanted to say is that many beginners died because original beta testers did not take care of them, and you want them to accept that responsibility and apologize, isn't that right?"

"Th...That's right."

Kibaou, momentarily overwhelmed, took a step back, but then soon moved back forward. With his shiny, small eyes glaring at the axe user called Egil, he shouted.

"If they did not leave us behind, 2000 people would not have died! However, they are not just any 2000 people, most of them were other MMO top ranks or veterans! If those shitty testers properly shared information, items and money, then there would have been 10 times the people here... no, by now we would have broken through the 2nd or 3rd floor!"

"Out of that 2000 deaths, 300 of them were known beta testers." A calm, strangely firm voice from beside Kirito spoke up, saying what the swordsman already had in mind, "Some of them were people I knew, some I was even close with."

He slowly stood up, his height just as imposing as the dark skinned man at the bottom, the bulky cloak on his back only made it more obvious as he slowly stepped down to the base, "Almost all of us stand at the fore front, testing the game with our wits, skills and bodies with outdated knowledge from the beta then passing down that knowledge to the new players. Even then, our knowledge barely stretches pass the tenth floor, what then?"

He stood face to chest with the Kibaou and lowered his face until they were nose to nose, "While what you said is true for a lot of self serving beta testers, do you EXPECT the rest of us to hold the hands of ten thousand players and lead you through the Aincrad? Is thanklessly giving our time, knowledge and lives **NOT ENOUGH? YOU THINK WE WEREN'T SCARED TOO?!"** he roared in the clearly frightened man's face. He spun around to face the rest of the crowd and roared boldly, "You want someone to scream at, SCREAM AT ME!"

Kirito had to admit, this was the first time he had seen the blonde so riled up, but in doing so, he could not bring himself to agree.

The blonde had literally painted a massive red target on his broad back. Sacrificing himself for the rest of the beta testers.

Naruto spat on the floor and glanced at Kibaou's chain mail armor which clearly of high quality, something he pointed out with a disdainful tap, unlike his own, "If a hypocrite like you wants to be complain and rail against the unfairness of this world while you are safe and pampered, join The Army _boy_, while the rest of us beat a path for you to climb with our blood and sweat."

He turned back and swiftly climbed back towards where Kirito and Asuna sat, apologizing quietly to his party members, "Sorry. I lost control for a moment there."

"Brave. Stupidly, pointlessly so." Kirito commented casually.

"That's what my grandmother said." Naruto said with a small grin as they continued to watch the discussion continue.

"What's a beta player?" the third member of their party lowly asked as they left the amphitheater.

The two shared a glance and Kirito gave Naruto a mocking bow, causing the blonde to wryly roll his eyes as he turned to the new member, "Basically, before the official server started, Argus rolled out a test server for 1000 randomly selected applicants to test and root out any problems in the encoding so that there wouldn't be, or at least there would be fewer problems when the real thing came out for the public."

Asuna nodded slowly, "So as a result, assuming all of the selected 1000 players reentered the official server, they would have prior information and experience with the game. Something like having some inside information before an important exam? Like in that guidebook Egil-san had." she postulated.

"Something like that." Naruto agreed with a nod, "Technical information, how to use skills, how to scavenge for food and Col, best places to rest and level. That being said, the amount of resources available is limited, just like real life, so there is no choice but to limit that to people that can get the best out of it. Imagine 10000 players just trying to kill a bunch of mobs or hunt for the same material. I might sound ruthlessly elitist, but in Aincrad, it's the only way we can clear this place within the next century." Naruto explained tonelessly.

Tiredly he looked up at the synthetic sky with as much resolve as he could muster, "This might sound like an excuse, but we can't help everybody directly. The only way I can think of to do that is to clear this game as fast as possible. Of course, I don't have all the answers, feel free to come up with a better idea."

Kirito came back bearing three pieces of bread that he handed to the two of them, saving one for himself as they found a secluded place to eat, away from the crowd.

"Cream?" the black haired boy quietly offered as he pulled out a small jar.

"I've got better, meat. Kukukuku." Naruto chuckled as he pulled out a small packet of delicious smelling meat, "Roasted Boar Meat, took me three days to make this baby."

"Isn't that the one from the Secret Dungeon? From the last boss?" Kirito looked distinctly disgusted despite the really appealing smell, "Wasn't he rotting?"

"Well yeah, that's why it takes three days to cook this stuff."

Then the two of heard something dripping. Simultaneously their heads swung around to see a visible line of drool dripping from the last member of their team.

"Uh… you want some?" Naruto and Kirito offered with amused grins.

Asuna hesitantly took the pack of meat and jar of cream, tapping it before tapping the piece of bread, spreading a thick layer of cream on it, hesitantly she lifted the bread to her lips and glanced uncertainly at her… acquaintances.

Naruto mimed eating the bread then the meat.

Asuna closed her eyes, as if she was about to take a dive into some deep, bottomless chasm and stuffed the bread and meat into her mouth at the same time.

At that moment, the texture of the normally dry and rough bread changed substantially. The taste of a certain rustic cake spread throughout her mouth; the cream was sweet and slippery, with a refreshingly sour yogurt taste. The inside of her cheeks were hit with jolts of electrifying fulfillment.

On the other hand, the juicy, salty taste of meat filled her mouth with its aroma, something she had been dying to taste for months, creating a harmony with the sour and doughy taste of the creamy bread.

Within seconds, meat and bread disappeared into her gullet, while her companions watched in amusement.

The hooded person sighed with satisfaction and slumped down into a corner, allowing the hood to fall off, revealing glossy brown hair and a fulfilled smile, "Now if I can just get a bath, I can die happy." She unconsciously muttered her thoughts outloud for the amused Kirito to hear, Naruto on the other hand...

"You're a girl?!" Naruto's jaw dropped incredulously.

The two of them looked at him like he was an idiot, "What? It was a VALID question, I honestly didn't notice!"

Kirito rolled his eyes and went back to eating, "That aside, getting a bath is easy if you know how. You just have to find a proper place. I have one where I stay." He said nonchalantly, more focused on stuffing his cheeks with his dinner.

He comically froze, jaw wide open mid-bite, when Asuna literally teleported herself directly in his face, brown hair lightly waving in the wind, "**Where**?"

His eyes moved to the side, silently begging for help from the amused blonde who just shrugged, "Don't look at me. I live in a tree. The closest public bathhouse is on the second floor though."

Asuna slowly stood up, towering over them with eyes burning with female righteousness, "**Bath. Now."**

The two strong and brave fighters that have faced many monsters and demons gulped and nodded frantically.

As the hooded player stomped ahead of the two shivering men, Naruto leaned over and whispered into Kirito's ear, "I think I felt my balls shrivel up in real life."

The raven haired swordsman nodded silently.

******The Hunter******

The next morning found Naruto waiting for Kirito and Asuna on the very edges of the city, where DIabel had appointed as the meeting spot.

As the familiar looking black haired swordsman appeared out of the morning fog alongside the girl, dressed in her customary brown cloak, Naruto waved at them cheerfully.

"You're here early." The hooded girl greeted with a nod.

Naruto just grinned and gestured back over his shoulder at a massive oak tree that marked the border between the City and the fields, "That's where I live. Doesn't really give me much of a choice."

"You were serious about living in a tree?" Kirito asked incredulously, "Are you even **trying **to stay alive?"

The blonde dramatically hugged the tree and crooned to it, "Hey… don't diss the tree. It's alright Mr. Tree, he doesn't mean it. He's just upset his stupid inn isn't as comfy as you."

"Is something wrong with him?" Asuna questioned lowly with a finger pointing at the blonde who was still crooning at the tree.

"Don't worry, stick around and that'll be you in three weeks." Kirito replied drily.

"Stick with him, and that'll be you in three days." Naruto called back from his tree.

Asuna simply rolled her eyes as she listened to them volley insults back and forth, the three of them followed the 48 person strong group at the very back. She understood though, things were already tense enough on the way to the first official Boss fight and it appeared to be their way of lightening things up for her, a complete beginner.

Their entourage made it all the way to the highest part of the maze on the twentieth floor without any major problems. Most mobs were completely overwhelmed by the united strength of 49 very upset people wielding pointy things.

"Are you ready?" Diabel shouted, standing at the fore of the group with a massive gate of cold, black iron behind him.

Seeing no disagreements, he nodded and continued with a flick of his hair, "Alright, let me repeat the plan, Two heavy armor Tank parties, A and B. Three high movement and high attack Attacker parties, C, D and E. Two long weapon equipped Support parties, F and G. Tanks will take turns to absorb damage, rotating Pots and Switch while keeping hate, while C, D and G will focus on taking out the boss. G and E will concentrate on keeping the Kobold Sentinels busy." He turned to the last three members that belonged to no group in particular, "Can you three provide support for groups G and E?"

Naruto stepped forward confidently, "Understood. Rest easy and focus on taking that bastard down."

Kibaou growled and elbowed Naruto out of the way, "Don't worry about that. We'll take care of that for you. Someone who is still using a level 1 spear should just stay back instead of getting in the way after all."

The blonde simply readjusted the massive bulk and spear on his back and stepped back in line without comment.

"Why did you just let him walk over you like that?" Asuna whispered from under the hood, "Their obviously looking down on us."

"Does it matter? Will inciting an argument here help defeat the boss?" Naruto commented lowly.

"Understood." The rapier user with the slight profile nodded and prepared herself by drawing a rapier.

"Is everyone ready?"

The rousing roar that answered him caused him to smile brilliantly and slam his shield onto the massive iron gate, throwing it upon with an equally massive clang, a bristling wall of weapons behind him, pointing towards the sky. As one, 49 people charged bravely into the room with a resounding cry that combined with the sound of their stampeding feet.

A surge ran up their spines, strengthening their will as they ran up and faced the massive Boss Monster, Illfang, The Kobold Lord who was sitting on a throne, Egil, the tallest of the clearing group barely managed to come up to its armrests. The Kobold Lord himself was no slouch, showing his true height as he stood up, large enough to throw a shadow on everybody at his feet. . Its bloodthirsty eyes flashed a golden red at the sight of intruders. Its right hand wielded an axe made of bone, while its left had a Leather Buckler equipped. Behind its waist, a meter and half long Talwar stood out. Four Hp gauges made themselves apparent, floating beside its snout.

He roared a ferocious battle cry, spittle flying from his jaw as the cry summoned 3 Ruin Kobold Sentinels at his feet.

Everything went still for a while as the each side watched the other, when the truce was broken by the sounds of the Kobol Sentinels banging on their shields and charging forwards. Mirroring their actions, G, E and Naruto's team charged forward to intercept the Sentinels while everyone else went directly at the Kobold Lord.

Asuna's rapier, flashing out like a meteor to slide in between the gap of a Sentinel's helmet signaled the start of the battle. Further in front, the first group, armed with axes and huge shields caught the first swing of the axe while their support team stabbed, hacked and cut on the Kobold Lord's unguarded side.

The battle was met.

Two hours later, a blonde slammed the end of his pike into the ground and flipped into the air somersaulting before bringing his spear down like a hammer, crushing the Sentinel into fine paste that dissolved into blue dust. As if on cue, another Sentinel spawned behind the throne and rejoined the battle. Suddenly someone shoved Naruto and Kirito aside, "You're just the support party, stop being so cocky." A familiar Kansai dialect grated in their ears.

"Is it our fault that 3 of us kill faster than the six of you? Even with a level 1 spear?" Naruto shot back with a grin.

Even Kirito chuckled a little as he and the blonde rejoined the battle.

The blonde pursed his lips as he glanced at the Kobold Lord's remaining HP bars, 1 and a half remaining, "This is bad. We took longer than I thought."

"Oh, you mean nearly running out of potions before the boss has even started to properly attack is a **bad** thing?" Kirito sarcastically replied as he crossed blades with a Sentinel with extra strength, stunning it momentarily, "Switch."

"That and I'm out of peanuts."

"Will you two STOP joking?! Men!" Asuna yelled in exasperation at her team mates as she initiated a Linear, running the point straight through the unprotected neck of the Sentinel Kirito had just stunned.

Just then the third gauged shattered and the boss stopped moving, breathing raggedly king as it threw down the bone axe in its right hand and the leather shield in its left simultaneously. It gave another defiant roar and brought its hand to the back of its waist, grasped the rag bound handle and slowly pulled out the «Talwar» that would signal the change in tactics. From here on, it would only use the sword skills from the curved blade category, going into the berserk condition, becoming terribly wild, but dealing with it now is easier than before. It used a long-ranged longitudinal cut. As long as you grasped the timing of the skill when it was launched, even if you're near the boss you could avoid the edge of the weapon.

That was when things went downhill with interest.

Under Diabel's command, the six people that formed Group C surrounded the boss. This was a formation that was not used while the boss still wielded the bone axe. As long as the six could avoid the wild swings of the Talwar until the boss exhausted itself for a few seconds...

"Something's wrong." Naruto muttered, "That's not a Talwar. It's a Katana."

"What do we do?"

"Can I go home?"

Asuna slapped the back of his head, "We are NOT going to go home and let everyone die. What's the difference between that Talwar thing and a Katana?"

"Different skill sets, a Talwar is a low class, curved blade type of weapon that can only attack in one direction. Katanas are high level type weapons that are far faster and have far more versatile skills, including an AOE skill."

Kirito jumped forward, ignoring Naruto's words, forcefully sucked air into his lungs, and bellowed loudly.

"Thi... this won't do, fall back! Retreat quickly!"

Unfortunately, his voice was drowned out by the sound effects of Illfang's sword skill.

The Kobold king's huge body shook the floor, as it jumped up high. It turned its body in mid-air, while accumulating power to its weapon. As it fell down, it used the accumulated power, releasing a crimson beam of light that slashed everyone surrounding the Boss with a blood red effect that remained in the air momentarily.

"Like that one?" Asuna timidly asked.

"Like that one." The blonde replied with a grim nod.

Six bright red light effects appeared, like pillars of blood.

The HP gauge that appeared at the left corner showing Group C's average HP on the left immediately dropped below fifty percent and into the yellow zone. Although you could expand the gauge with your fingertips in order to see the six individual HP gauges of each player, at the moment there was no point in doing it. Everyone in Group C obviously received equal amounts of damage.

It was a ranged attack with tremendous power enough to take out more than half of their full HP, and that was not all. Yellow lights shaped like stars rotated around the heads of six people that had collapsed on the floor, indicating that they were unable to move for a period time; proof that they had all been stunned.

"Protect them! I'll kill him!" a blue haired knight, his hair flowing in the wind declared bravely as he surged forward to take on the boss alone. Team C, Egil and his subordinates moved forward, axe or shield held upwards to ward off a cleave from the massive Katana while the knight, barely even reaching Illfang's knees darted forward alone and began to stab at the unprotected belly.

"What are you doing fool?! Retreat and regroup! You don't know what you're up against!" Kirito yelled involuntarily as he ran forward, watching in slow motion as the boss seemed to smile and lift the Katana, high up into the sky and brought the glowing blue blade mercilessly.

DIabel jumped sideways, a momentary triumphant grin on his face that was wiped off instantly when the ground underneath him exploded, launching him into the sky violently.

Ukifune didn't do much damage, but it was cleaving type attack whose special ability was to send everything in front of the attacker tumbling into the sky, it was nothing but the starting point of a deadly combo.

By then, they already knew that Diabel couldn't be saved as the Kobold Lord withdrew the blade into a ready position, Hiogi, a three hit air combo that juggled everything in front of the user. It was not possible to avoid this attack once one was already caught by Ukifune, only helplessly accept his malice.

Everybody stared helplessly, rooted to the spot in shock and horror as their leader was hit violently.

"Asuna."

"Hu-huh?" the female rapier user asked shakily as she looked down at where a kneeling blonde was pulling out spear after spear and laying them on the floor until he was surrounded by them.

"Can you help Kirito? Keep him alive until I'm done." He replied urgently, focused entirely on getting ready.

"Su-sure."

Firming her resolve, she dashed forward in a burst of speed that far surpassed anything either Kirito or Naruto were capable off, eliciting an admiring smile from the blonde as he threw off his heavy cloak with a heavy breath to help him focus.

He shifted the massive object on his back and slammed its end down onto the ground with a grunt, its heaviness cracking the paved floor with a loud thud.

It was a massive block of wood that had been carved into a crude crescent moon that was thinnest around the middle. A piece of elastic rope connected the two curved points.

******The Hunter******

**Play ****Two Steps from Hell - Strength of a Thousand Men****  
**

Kirito skidded beside the fallen knight on his knees and gripped DIabel's shoulder tightly, the structure under his fingers slowly crumbling with a sad feeling. The knight gave one last smile, "I-I'm sorry for being so selfish… I was too focused on getting the Last Attack instead of you… "

"Enough, don't talk." Kirito frantically fumbled in his jersey to pull out a potion.

"Sa-save your potions." His eyes weakly glanced at the HP gauge above his head that was slowly declining, and he knew that nothing would save him at this point save a HP crystal which were only available after the fifth floor, "It's already too late. Kir-Kirito-kun, please… de-defeat the Boss in my place."

The serene look on his face as he finally left Aincrad was heart rending.

A fiery feeling flowed through Kirito's veins as he slowly stood up, the hand gripping his sword trembling with a burning anger.

He heard someone step up beside him, "Joker asked me help you. He needs some time to get ready."

Jet black eyes, burning with anger looked at the hooded girl standing steadily beside him, "Understood. I'll be relying on you."

The two of them shared a look and leapt forward without any hesitation, yelling their anger and defiance at the grinning Illfang. Asuna, running by his side, violently grasped her hood and cape that were in the way, and flung it off her body.

The light from countless torches that were the side walls seemed to gather together and shine brightly. Her glossy, long chestnut colored hair now emitted a deep golden shine, scattering the dim light in the boss's room.

"This battle will be similar to the ones with the Sentinels, Switch and keep up the attacks," he raised his voice and bellowed, "Everyone that needs to heal, back ten steps towards the exit! As long as the boss is not surrounded, it will not use its ranged attacks. Anyone that can help, do so in pairs, but make sure you don't surround the boss!"

"Understood!"

The boss, lowered his stance as he realized that two players were getting ready to attack him again and gripped his Nodachi, causing it to glow a deep green, slashing at a speed which could not be seen. Straight long ranged move, _Whirlwind_ «Tsujikaze». Because it was an Iai type move, it would be impossible to keep up with it after seeing it launched, unless…

Kirito held his breath and moved his right hand to his left hip as well, leaning forward as if to fall. The moment his body reached a certain angle, he stomped his right foot to take off. Without any hesitation, his body was wrapped in a thin blue light as he blew through the remaining ten meters between him and the boss with incredible speed.

Basic sword rush technique, «Rage Spike», intercepting the Tsujikaze before it was launched and stunning the boss momentarily, "Switch!"

Asuna, grabbing the opportunity with remarkable grace, leapt up into the air with a cry, her rapier poised perfectly as it emitted a brilliant red light, launching rapid thrusts again and again straight at the Kobold Lord's face in the time that Kirito had bought her. Gracefully she spun the rapier around and dug it into the boss' torso on her way down, cutting a long red line that bled sparks.

Without hesitation, Kirito resettled his pose and slashed, catching the Nodachi by the hilt, gritting his jaw to stop his teeth from rattling due to the force from the collision. A quick glance told him that even though the attack had been blocked, the sheer power behind it had managed to take a sliver of his HP, "Switch!"

"Hai!"

Taking the advantage to gulp down a potion, Kirito took the time to take stock of the situation, widening his eyes in panic as more and more people gathered their confidence and began to attack the boss in droves.

"I said STAY BACK!"

"You just want to get the Last Attack don't you!? Even sacrificing Diabel to get it, I won't let you! If you can do it, so can anyone!" a familiar Kansai dialect, caused the anger to burn deep inside him.

The kobold seemed to understand and a wide, fanged grin appeared as it made laughing noises. It drew back his nodachi, and leapt into the air far too agilely for anything of its size was meant to, leaving a circle of shocked players on the ground.

"Damn! RETREAT!"

His order came too late, as the massive Kobold landed in a whirlwind of blades, slashing everything nearby, including him, and sending them crashing into the walls and ground with pained screams.

A quick look told him that he had only managed to get away in time to take 1 third of the base damage, but Asuna's HP had already reached the red zone, "Asuna! Get away!" He yelled uselessly, as he realized that they were all stunned and completely unguarded. Asuna obviously struggling to move her limbs, and failing miserably between pants.

The Kobold Lord seemed to smile again as it lifted up the Nodachi, aiming for the person with the greatest hate, Asuna.

"Thrust!" a red streak burned through the air, its point meeting the Nodachi's blade with a massive explosion of sparks, its force successfully throwing the Kobold Lord backwards just as the stun effect wore off. Without pausing, he threw Asuna a red potion, and looked backwards to find his helper.

That was when he realized that the last member of his team, dressed in nothing but simple cloth armor, was holding some sort of wooden contraption crescent steady with one hand, as he fitted another spear into its middle.

Gripping the butt of the spear in one hand, Naruto sighted down the shaft as it began to glow red, signaling the start of a basic Sword Skill, the veins in his arm standing out as he pulled back, the rope and wooden crescent straining against his strength.

"What the fuck is that?" Kirito yelled just as the blonde released his grip on the spear, sending another red comet straight into the Kobold Lord's shoulder with another massive explosion, causing it to stagger again.

"Faster... faster.. .faster..." Naruto mumbled, a bead of sweat running down his temples unnoticed due to his concentration as he sent spear after spear into the Kobold Lord's abdomen, knocking the monster back, bit by bit.

Naruto gave a strained grin as he refitted another spear, "Isn't it obvious? It's a bow."

"Bow my ass, that thing is more like a frigging Ballista isn't it?"

"Details, details. By the way?"

"What?"

"DUCK, you retard!"

"Is that what you're supposed to say to someone that's about to die!?" A raven haired boy screamed back as he hit the floor.

A blood red light flashed right above, barely cutting off a few strands of black hair on its way to its target.

A blazing spear pierced the right eye of the Kobold Lord; last boss of the First Floor. It teetered for a moment before falling over backwards with a massive rumble, entering the Tumble state.

"It's down! EVERYONE get his ass before he gets up!"

"UUOHHH!" everybody who was still standing roared and began chopping the downed monster.

This was a gamble. If the Kobold king's HP was reduced to nothing before it got up, it would be our victory. If it gets out of the «Tumble» status first, we would be met with «Tsumujiguruma» again, and this time everyone would be cut down. Kirito glanced at his sword, «Sonic Leap» was in the middle of the «Cooling» period, so he would be unable to deal attacks in the air. Simultaneously, he realized that Naruto's bow was not capable of stopping attacks like normal Sword Skills despite the incredible damage he was apparently capable of.

Egil's group who had recovered from the delay of their techniques, began to get into the motions for the next skills. The Kobold king stopped struggling at the same time, and its body started to rise.

"...We are not going to make it?!"

Gritting his teeth, Naruto hefted the bow onto his shoulder as he began jogging forwards, the strength parameter already hitting the red zone with just that, "Asuna! Kirito! One last one!"

"Osu!"

"Hai!"

Naruto up the the chocolate skinned man without pause, "Sorry bout this, Egil," and stepped on his bald head, jumping straight up into the air above the rising Illfang, acrobatically wedging his legs at both edges and pulling back a spear with both hands and all his strength as Kirito and Asuna carved their way up the Kobold Lord's body.

"God, let this HITTTT!"

The spear glowed a deep blue, signaling the start of the mid range spear skill that required two hands, Pierce, and Naruto released the spear, the backlash snapped his bow and sent him flying off into a corner violently, crashing in a crumpled heap.

The blue spear rocketed downwards, burying itself deep into the Kobold Lord's forehead, instead of stopping there, it began drilling its way all the way through, bursting through the other side with a spray of red blood just as his two teammates slashed their way across Illfang's eyes.

On his back, the blonde groaned with his eyes closed as the chamber shook and rumbled like a it had been hit by a minor earthquake, only releasing a relieved sigh when he heard the sound of something crumbling apart.

A floating screen appeared above his face, [Congratulations, You have obtained the last hit.]

"We did it Naruto!" The blonde endured the uncomfortable and weird sensation of every bone in his body being rattled violently due to the crash as he heard Kirito yelling.

Without getting up, he lifted one shaking hand and gave his partner a victory sign.

******The Hunter******

Author's Note: Yeah the plot so far resembles the anime more than the novel, though that's not necessarily a bad thing, Kinda cut through a lot of unnecessary stuff in my opinion.

Now I'm a great fan of Asuna and Kirito pairing but at the same time Naruto and Asuna sounds pretty good though that kind of messes up the story later. So I'll have to figure something out. In other words, complete AU.

In other words, I'm accepting votes whether the story will go on to become AsunaxNaruto or NarutoxOC, or some other character. All three paths are wildly different obviously.


	2. The White Archer & The Black Swordsman

**The Hunter Chapter 2**

**The White Hunter & The Black Swordsman**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic.**

**Hum... Not my best chapter. Was kinda stuck on wondering what I wanted to include, and what I didn't want to include. As well as how to form the relationship between the three. Still, I hope that you enjoy this little chapter. That being said, it is currently Friday where I am. Don't expect frequent updates from me for the next two-three months since classes are starting again next week.  
**

**Soundtrack List**

Yuna Ito - Trust You

LiSA – crossing field

******The Hunter******

Kirito grinned as he held out a hand to the panting blonde who was still on his back, "Good job, bastard. Nice shooting."

Naruto snorted and grabbed the offered hand, slowly pulling himself up, "So you CAN smile. I was beginning to wonder if your mom dropped you on your face as a baby or something. That aside..." he looked at the smashed remains of his great bow laying around his feet and sighed at the amount of effort he was going to have to put in if he wanted a new one.

"I'm going to need a new bow." He grumbled.

All around the two men, the players began clapping and hollering in joy as reality set in.

They had finally defeated the first floor boss of Aincrad, the first floor that had single handedly confinecd more than 8000 players in it for two months had been broken through, "We cleared it! We unlocked the second floor!"

The metaphorical wall that had never seemed more impenetrable, standing high and tall, monstrously strong even after 2 months of effort, had finally broken down, allowing a single bright ray of hope to shine through the rubble.

It gave them hope that getting out of SAO and getting back to real life wasn't just a hopeless dream.

"Why is everyone clapping?! Those two people sacrificed Diabel just so they could get the _Last Hit_!" He turned to the spectators, inciting them with wild gestures, "And that blonde has a special _Hidden skill_ that he kept to himself; that proves that everything he said during the meeting was a lie! How can you expect us to trust his words when he is lying like that?! Right?!" the single voice of dissension broke through the happy cheering.

A quiet murmuring began replacing the happy cheers and both of them could feel the stares of 45 people prickling the back of their necks with resentment.

"I'm beginning to really dislike that Kansai dialect." The blonde mumbled, as he sagged against the wall, slowly gathering his stamina again.

"Agreed."

Asuna appeared between her teammates, one hand placed on her hip with a scrunched up expression on her face, "What's the big deal about this _Last Hit_ thing?"

_Last Hit_ was the act of scoring the decisive hit on a monster, granting the attacker and his team a greater chance of obtaining item drops and Col from the defeated monster. Experience was usually proportionally divided amongst everybody who participated in battle, meaning the team who did the most damage would obtain the lion's share of the experience. In this case; Illfang. Naturally as a unique monster boss, The Kobold Lord would drop highly valued and unique equipment that couldn't be obtained anywhere else.

He glanced at the temporary inventory space from his menu, eyes rapidly shifting through the items stored there, waiting to be distributed amongst himself, Kirito and Asuna.

Scratching the back of his head, Naruto wearily got up, feeling strangely weak as the adrenaline surge left his bloodstream while Kirito began explaining the concept of a _Last Hit_ to the girl in hushed tones. Even if his real body wasn't here and any damage done to his avatar could be easily healed by potions or crystals, mental fatigue represented a real danger to any SAO player. A simple lapse of concentration was more often than not, more lethal than any blade considering the amount of hand, eye and mental coordination that the game required to activate Sword Skills.

It was worse for him compared to most players because trying to get his spears to fly in a straight line; much less even **hit** something really wasn't as easy as it looked.

He accidentally shot his own foot off once.

It wasn't something he liked to talk about.

Someone else yelled angrily, a scimitar user from Diabel's group C. Behind him, the other members of the team looked haunted and dishevelled, glaring at the archer and the swordsman with unveiled anger and accusing eyes, "Ki-Kibaou-san's right, I heard him shouting before Diabel-san died. The-these people, they already knew the skills the Boss used! If only you gave that information at the start, Diabel-san wouldn't have died! One of them even has a special skill that he didn't use until it was too late, if he had used it sooner, Diabel-san wouldn't have died, right?!"

"Right!"

"Yeah! Tell us how you got that skill! It's not fair that you alone have it!"

"The other one too, he's a beta tester like the blonde guy! Helping people out my ass, they're just pretending to be the good guys while they hide all the best spots for experience and equipment to themselves!"

Their wrath was interrupted by the mace user who had served as a tank with Egil until the end. He raised his hand honestly, and said in a calm tone.

"Even so, the guide that was handed out yesterday, it was written that it was only information on the boss's attack pattern during the beta period, right? If he was really a beta tester, wouldn't his knowledge be the same as in the guide? It was obvious there was no chance for him to realize that the attack pattern had changed until the boss pulled out that big ass Nodachi."

"Tha, That is..."

A ratty looking man shook his fist in denial, "Tha-that strategy guide was a lie! Argo's information shop was selling lies. That person was a beta tester after all, there's no way she would have given us the truth for free. They're all just helping each other, these damned beta testers!"

Spiteful words like that hammered on their conscience. Gritting his teeth, the weary blonde tried to get up and argue, only to wobble on his feet unsteadily as the world spun around him causing the black haired swordsman and Asuna to dart to his sides, supporting him by grabbing on to his arms.

"Tha-thanks."

"No worries. Asuna, can you support him by yourself?"

"Yes... but what are you going to do?"

Kirito grinned bitterly and said lowly, "He saved us once already, so I guess it's my turn to be the hero."

Slowly stepping forward, he began laughing lowly, "You guys sure are idiots."

Kirito threw the staggering blonde a look, "Hidden Skill? Don't make me laugh, there are far more power skills on the higher level that only the elite can get. That skill is nothing but looks, all talk and no walk."

Every single player present, save his teammates, were now staring at him in shock, as he continued speaking in a condescending, contemptuous tone, "And don't compare someone like me to those idiots like that the blonde and normal beta testers, among that 1000 players, how many of them were true MMORPG players like me do you think were selected? Most of them were just newbies that didn't even know the difference between the sharp end of a sword and its hilt."

He surveyed all the shocked and pale players watching him, "But, I'm not like those guys."

Kirito deliberately twisted his lips into a sneer, "During the beta test, I reached floors that no one else could reach. I learned of the Katana Skills the boss used since I kept fighting mobs that used katanas from a floor way higher. I know way more other things too, there's no way even that Argo person could even match me."

"...What, is that..."

The person who first pointed me out as a beta tester, the ratty man from Group E, said out in a hoarse voice.

"That's... no longer on the level of a beta tester... that's totally cheating, you are just a cheater!"

From around them, "Yeah! Cheater! Cheating beta tester!" Many voices spewed those dissatisfied words harshly. Those words were soon mixed up together, in the end a strange sounding word, _Beater_, reached my ears.

"..._Beater_, that has a good ring to it."

Laughing and grinning, the black haired man looked around at everybody in that area, and told them in a clear voice, "Exactly, I am a «Beater». From now on, please do not lump me together with those former testers."

Selecting a black cloak from the temporary inventory shared between his teammates, he equipped it with a flourish. The dark gray leather coat that he had worn up till now, was replaced by the unique equipment dropped by the boss just a moment ago, the _Coat of Midnight_. The ragged brown tunic was replaced by a shiny jet black leather cloak, its length long enough for the hem reach his knees.

"I'll go on and activate the second floor's transfer gate. From the exit up there it will be a short walk to the district town, if you want to come along, be prepared to be killed by any mob that comes along." With those ominous and elitist words, Kiriot began walking up the narrow spiral staircase towards the wooden door set in the wall behind Illfang's throne.

As the players watched him leave, a new voice joined the conversation, ragged and resigned yet resolute, "All of you are truly fools."

Tired of being talked down to, the cactus head apparently hit his limit when he aggressively stepped forward with his fists raised and an expression of pure anger on his thuggish face. The golden haired man who had left Asuna's embrace side stepped the charge and slugged him across the face with all his remaining strength, throwing Kibaou onto the ground with a loud crack, above him, the marker turned orange because of his assault on another player.

"It makes me sad to see all of you so petty," He pointed at the cactus head groaning on the floor with a lazy finger, "Especially idiots like you. You claim that we should lead you, teach you, yet when Kirito was telling everybody not to surround the boss and whittle away at his HP in small teams, what in fuck's name caused you to disregard the orders of someone that obviously knows more than you and charge in, endangering the lives of you and your equally retarded team just for some items? **LEVEL 5 ITEMS**?! **OUT OF 100?"**

Kibaou's group stared at their feet, looking slightly embarrassed.

"And my skill, yeah I didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't even know if it would work, it wasn't even field tested yet. You want the skill so badly? Buy the next guidebook. It'll be there for you ungrateful idiots to copy, assuming any of you are **skilled** enough to use it anyway. If that wasn't bad enough, you then try and lynch the beta testers, the very same people who have the experience and knowledge we need to clear the game faster? Congratu-fucking-lations, almost every single one of you here have almost singlehandedly ensured that no beta tester will ever willingly stick his neck out for any you ever again, because even he does, he just risks it being cut off by you instead of by monsters."

Reaching into his inventory the blonde flung his hands out with a distasteful look, throwing sacks of Col and equipment on to the ground with a loud clatter, "These are my share of the boss drops. You can have them. Maybe squabbling over them will keep all of you busy long enough for us to clear this god forsaken game. "

The blonde gave everyone a fierce glare, huffing in satisfaction when he had determined that they were suitably chastised. Tiredly donning the last remaining piece of equipment in his inventory, Windwalker's Cloak, a long trench coat similar to the Coat of Midnight, only with an open front, made of flowing, pure white cloth that granted minimal protection but significantly increased his movement speed, the blonde began climbing the staircase without another word.

******The Hunter******

Kirito slowly climbed up the spiral staircase that led to the next floor paying particular attention to black stone steps through fuzzy vision as his own adrenaline surge wore off, when he missed a step and slipped. Wobbling over backwards, Kirito closed his eyes and internally prepared himself to be extremely humiliated after tumbling all the way back down after a flashy exit when someone's palm was placed at the small of his back, stopping him from toppling all the way back down with a grunt.

"Oi, oi... You know what happens when a tired man leans on another tired man right?"

He recognized the voice, and let out a small chuckle, "What the heck are you doing here? You were supposed to agree with the rest that I was a complete bastard and let me take the heat."

"Uh huh. Who the heck is supposed to watch your back then?"

"I can take care of myself." Kirito replied shortly.

"Oh definitely, the perfect way you almost broke your neck by oh-so-gracefully falling off the staircase was absolutely convincing argument. Imagin-Ack!" the strength left Naruto's knees, and BOTH of them began wobbling over backwards, windmilling their arms uselessly to regain balance when a giggling girl grabbed both of their arms and pulled them back onto the steps with a huff.

"You're BOTH idiots." Asuna declared with her hands on her hips and a half smile on her lips, golden brown hair flowing in the slight breeze blowing from the open door.

"Asuna?" Naruto gave the ridiculously energetic girl a weird look.

"What?"

"You do realize that we just fought, nonstop, for nearly five **hours** right? How on God's green Earth are you still so active?"

"Really? I don't really feel any different I guess... I mean, yeah I'm tired, but at least I'm not tripping while standing still."

"What are you smoking and where can I get some?"

The brown haired girl slapped the back of Naruto's head as she took a seat between the two males while the black haired boy rolled his eyes, "Stop making stupid jokes like that."

The blonde chuckled and pulled out some black bread and meat that he shared with the other two.

The three of them quietly munched their lunch in companionable silence on the steps with the portal to the second floor barely 2 metres behind them, "Shouldn't we at least go open the teleporter or something?" Asuna mumbled through her meat sandwich.

The other two shared a look, and replied simultaneously with silly grins, "Too tired, those idiots can wait."

Asuna rolled her eyes at their idiocy before something occurred to her and thrust her face in front of the blonde, positively burning with curiosity, "That reminds me, how did you manage get a bow? I thought only melee type weapons were available in SAO, that's what the pamphlets said anyway."

The blonde poked her nose and slowly pushed her face away from his lunch with an amused smile before returning to picking his sandwich apart slowly, "That's... not exactly true, there are minor ranged weapons, but most of them are generally used as secondary support skills since they don't really do much damage. I simply exploited the way the vague way the system classifies ranged weapons." He explained simply.

Kirito narrowed his eyes at the explanation, "That sounds a lot like you know how the system's code works."

"You might say that." Naruto nodded vaguely before turning back to an attentive Asuna, "You see, SAO was the first game of its kind and boasted of an extremely detailed environment to ensure maximum immersion in the game. What that really means is that the programmers did their best to make the in-game laws of physics mimic that of real life, like gravity for instance. What this boils down to, is that there are any number of ways to reach your goal as long as you are creative enough to operate within the system's limits."

He paused and swallowed another bite and a sip of water from a bamboo container, "First off, you have to know that all weapons are generally divided into four categories, thrust type like your rapier, smash type like maces, slashing types like swords and axes and finally piercing types like my spears. The finer details are unique to each weapon but that's beside the point. Under those four main categories is another sub category; throwing weapons. Take for instance, picks and flying hatchets. Despite clearly being throwing weapons, picks are also categorised as spears and throwing axes are mini axes, so the throwing weapon skill set actually applies to all four categories as a whole and one can even use a pick as a spear if he wanted to. Most people just don't know it because, well... who in the world will throw a massive axe or spear?"

"There's one idiot right here." Kirito commented dryly, already understanding where this was going.

"Well... yeah pretty much." Naruto chuckled, "Anyway, the damage of a throwing weapon is determined by three things; the Dexterity stat, the skill multiplier itself, and how hard it is thrown. Since axes and spears are pretty heavy, there's no way anyone can throw them hard enough, plus it's a waste to throw a perfectly good weapon away like that, which is sort of why I stuck to using beginner spears."

"In other words, you compensate for your own lack of strength using that stupidly large bow."

"That's about the gist of it." Naruto nodded easily.

"Problem is, how did you manage to make that bow?" the black haired boy responded curiously.

"Well, that's the second part of the exploit. You've played the game before Kirito. Now tell me how does the crafting system work in the game?"

A nonplussed Kirito seemed to ponder the question for a moment before it dawned on him, "Wood crafting..."

"Bingo." The blonde cheerfully slapped Kirito's back.

"Wait, wait, what about wood crafting." A confused Asuna interrupted pitifully with cheeks that puffed up adorably.

Kirito felt that it reminded him of his hamster, begging for food when it was hungry though he refrained from speaking his mind out loud, he still laughed at the girl's uncharacteristic curiosity, "Amongst the crafting skills available like blacksmithing or even tailoring, wood crafting is different because it's used for crafting furniture instead of equipment like tailoring and blacksmithing. Using those two skills is basically just involves putting the raw material on a table and tapping it until it becomes a randomized piece of equipment according to the blacksmith's or tailor's skill level. Wood crafting, like cooking, is different in that, there are no set patterns, one can create anything they want out of the raw materials according to their imagination and skill level only influences the quality of the material that you are allowed to use. Apparently no one else realized that it could be used for more than furniture. The idiot here," He gestured at the blonde who was on his back resting, "Basically just carved out a piece of furniture that is shaped like a bow, stuck a piece of string on it and then literally used it LIKE a bow, along with spears as big ass arrows. When you combine that with the spear's high base damage, the fact that he managed to negate the spear's slow attack speed and zero cool down period because he's basically throwing them instead of using them like normal spears and the throwing weapons damage multiplier; it means that we're basically sitting next to Sword Art Online's version of a one man _Heavy Artillery_."

Naruto proudly puffed up his chest at the title.

"Of course there are quite a few setbacks to it that I can see right off the bat." Kirito muttered excitedly, causing the blonde to deflate comically with anime tears, "It's got to be ridiculously hard to aim with that thing because there is no system support for that function unlike normal Sword Skills, in other words, it will have to be an innate skill, and because of the movement speed penalty for equipping using heavy long range weapons, I'm pretty sure you are nothing but a glorified sitting duck while you're shooting."

"Movement penalties? Sitting duck?"

Kirito scratched the back of his head, "Uh... all weapons have their general advantages and disadvantages. Like my sword, it is flexible and versatile in any situation, but equipping it will cost me 10% movement speed and their base damage is nothing to write home about though we compensate by being able to attack many more times than a spear within the same time span. Rapiers have some of the lowest base damage in exchange for being able to attack faster than any other weapon and have no movement speed penalties at all, though they also completely lack any sort of AOE skills to deal with multiple monsters. Spears, large axes, halberds, pole arms on the other hand have high base damage and a wide sweeping range, but they inflict a 40% movement speed penalty. Armours have similar restrictions; heavy armour like plate mail costs 30% movement speed but gives the best amount of defence, light armour like chainmail gives less armour, some evasion and only inflicts a 20% movement speed penalty. Cloth amour on the other hand, "He tapped on his tunic, "Only takes away 10% movement speed and gives little to no defence at all in return for massive evasion boosts."

The brown haired girl thoughtfully chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, "So... assuming someone uses heavy armour and a pole arm, we're looking at someone with high defence and base damage per **Hit** at a cost of a 70% movement speed penalty?"

"Pretty much." The enigmatic blonde answered easily, "We call those kinds of characters, Tanks. Fast moving characters with good Damage per **Second **are Sweepers and those in the middle of the spectrum, trading the two extremes for versatility are Supporters." Naruto added conversationally, "By the way, you and Kirito are considered Sweepers, while I'm technically a Supporter."

"That's only because you can't move properly though. Besides, anything weaker than a semi-boss more or less goes down in one hit when you blow its brains out with your spear from a range. Anything **stronger** and you'll be in a party with a dedicated tank to take the attention away from you anyway. As long as you can find a way to fix that speed problem, I'm willing to bet my college savings that there won't be anybody around that can out damage that stupidly huge bow of yours."

"Muu! I'm starting to hate MMORPGS. This is more complicated than university level math! There are so many stupid variables!"

Naruto petted a pouting Asuna's head with a wide grin, "Relax, take your time understanding this stuff. No one said you had to be an instant expert. As long as you stay alive, there's always another chance to come back again, better, stronger and wiser. You can't do anything anymore once you're dead." Naruto observed gravely, "Speaking of which, we better get going. It's going to be dark soon and I don't want to be stuck outside of the safety zone when night falls, especially since I feel like I'm buck ass nude without my bow."

"Agreed. Except the nude part." Kirito nodded and the two of them hefted their equipment up, "Asuna? Aren't you coming?"

The two blinked in concern, "A-are you alright?! Your nose is bleeding all over the place! And why is your face so red? Are you sick?"

The questions jolted the brown haired girl back into consciousness and she desperately tried to stem the blood flow from her nose, "Eh? Ah! I'm alright, I'm alright!" Ju-Just go ahead without me! I'll catch up."

Kirito scratched the back of his head in worry, "We-well if you're sure...? Just follow the path, there's only one way from here to town anyway."

"O-okay. I'll be nud-FINE, I mean FINE!"

"O...kay? We'll be waiting for you at the only inn in town, we can decide what we want to do after this there."

**[Spurt]**

"**Asuna**!? Why are you bleeding even more!?"

She clamped her hands on her nose, "I-it's nothing. Th-the two of you are going to be in the sa-same room?"

"Is there a problem with that? We'll get you a different room of course."

She frantically waved her hands with a strangled smile, "No! No problem! **[Spurt]** Now get out of here!"

"...Okay?"

"What's wrong with her?" Naruto muttered as he started jogging at a brisk pace.

"Why are you asking me? The only females I know personally are my sister and mother." Kirito grumbled in embarrassment.

"Ah... You think I cooked that meat wrongly or something?"

"I dunno, tasted alright to me. Must be a girl thing."

As the two reluctantly left the only female member of their team and ran along the beaten path, Kirito quietly sent Naruto a private message, "By the way... You do realize that the exploit means that you're not the only one that is capable of using bows right? If someone else finds out, we'd have quite a few bow wielding idiots running around."

The blonde shrugged, "I know... I was going to ask Argo to publish the exploit in her book anyway. The only reason I didn't do so beforehand was because I needed to test it out in actual combat, up till then I was only testing it out on dummies and static targets."

"What!? Why!? You should keep it a secret! What if someone uses it for bad reasons?" the raven haired swordsman protested harshly.

The blonde shook his head, "I'm not looking to get an award or anything. I just want to free everyone from the game and go home." He gave Kirito a significant glance, "I'm not saying that what you are suggesting is wrong, but I **have** to help. I just can't stand around and focus on myself. Aincrad, SAO... the deaths of 2000 people... part of it was my fault and getting them out as soon as possible is the only way I know how to atone for it. As for being misused... I'll deal with it as it comes I guess."

Silently, the black haired swordsman considered the blonde's words and his earlier suspicions, "Does this... have anything to do with the fact that you knew how the system's coding worked?"

He received no reply from the blonde. Figuring that he was uncomfortable with revealing anything more, Kirito steadfastly kept his focus on the road, allowing their black and white cloaks to flap silently in their slipstream.

"Yo, Kiri-bou. Ruto!"

Both of them skidded to a halt, as a small girl, her height was only enough to reach Kirito's shoulder, much less the taller Naruto's height. A pair of whiskers on each cheek, clearly drawn with black ink stretched as she greeted the two men with a wide grin as shameless as her black merchant's soul. This small girl, who resembled a Rat, was Argo, the information dealer and publisher of the Guidebook.

"I'd ask how you managed to get past us and reach the second floor before either of us, but I don't think I can pay the price." Naruto dryly noted with a smirk.

"Nishishihi, good guess Ruto! By the way, it's 1000 Col-sa."

"So? What do you need from us? It's not like you to look for us. Usually you make us look for you." This time it was Kirito's turn to comment dryly, already too used to the Information dealer's antics.

"Well... I kinda need a favour; you see I'm being chased by two idio-."

"I keep telling you that if you don't stop being so creepy and calculating, you would regret it one day, didn't I? Naruto cut in with a sarcastic grin, "What did you scam from them this time?"

"Mu! I'm an information dealer! I don't do scams-dayo!" Argo began ranting in the middle of the road but stopped when she realized that the blonde was deliberately teasing her when he began guffawing out loud.

"Ignoring the idiot beside me for a moment, we'll help but what's in it for us? Not to mention, how are we supposed to protect you from them? I don't plan on being an orange player anytime soon." Kirito spoke up as he began slowly scanning the area for any sign of the two people that were supposedly chasing Argo.

"Muu... Well... I was thinking about hiding behind the infamous 'White Archer' and the 'Black Swordsman' that defeated the first floor boss magnificently."

"That was way too fast." Kirito face palmed, though he knew full well that the titles weren't meant to be complimentary at all, quite the opposite actually, "News of that already spread? Not to mention they already began giving us weird nicknames?"

"Don't forget Asuna, there's a third member in our team." Naruto finished the sentence with a chuckle."

"Huh? There was a third person? Weird-da... No one said anything about him or her..."

"Thankfully. Asuna doesn't need people like us bringing her down." Naruto gave his somewhat grim opinion.

"Let's continue the original topic first, why can't you just hide in town? It's not that far from here now." Kirito jerked his chin down the beaten path that led into a valley. The second floor town, Urbus, was located right on the other side of the valley, although as the sun began to set behind the nearest mountain, Kirito realized the true reason.

"Ah...We were too late. Its night already... The monsters in the valley will become more aggressive and numerous, and I don't have any weapons with me right now. And to make things worse, Asuna still isn't here yet." Naruto muttered, seeing the really bad predicament they were currently in.

"Lucky for you two, I can solve all those problems-da! For a price of course~" Argo the Rat sing songed cheerfully as she took advantage of their situation.

"You already asked for protection, that's the price. We have already implicitly agreed, now what's the solution. Merchant's pride, don't go back on the deal now." Naruto immediately shot with a grin.

For the first time since meeting the Argo the Rat who always full of smart ass comebacks that enabled the short girl that was perpetually swathed in a brown full body cloak to always have the last word, Kirito finally saw what she looked like when she was dumbfounded, and it was absolutely glorious.

Cursing like someone had killed her pet kitten when she finally realized that she had been duped, Argo the Rat just jerked her head towards a small, unbeaten path through the bushes on their left, "There's a safe zone where we can wait until morning arrives, the path there doesn't have that many monsters so we should be fine. Incidentally the solution for Baka-ruto's problem is also there, the quest NPC for the _Hidden Skill 'Martial Arts'_. I rushed here as soon as I heard Illfang was defeated to confirm if it was still there from the beta, but two idiots ambushed me before I could get back to town, and I can't risk going back into the safety zone without ensuring that they don't see me."

"Why don't you just tell them where it is? That way they will leave you alone, and it will benefit the front liners in the long run." Naruto questioned lowly.

Argo hesitated, "One; the NPC can only give out the quests a limited number of times, meaning less than 10 people will ever get this skill. I can't just let some half assed ninja wannabes get them and waste them. And 2..." She hesitated, "Yo-you'll see why when we get there. It's a problematic matter that deeply concerns my pride-dayo."

"Understood. Now we just need to wait for the third member of our group to get here. You'll like her, I'm sure." he paused and made a face, "Anyone have any peanuts? I really need something to nibble on right now."

******The Hunter******

**********Play Yuna Ito - Trust You**

Asuna and Argo giggled delightedly at the incredibly disgruntled look on the blonde and the raven haired boy, compounded of course by the fact that they both had rat like whispers, similar to the ones on Argo's cheek, decorating their own faces. Well to be precise, Kirito had whiskers, the old NPC had given Naruto ridiculously childish looking swirls and a pig's nose after he had accidentally insulted the NPC that appropriately enough, looked like an old Kung Fu master.

After warding off two idiotic looking ninjas and a breathless Asuna had arrived and agreed to the detour, the two of them had taken the forest path as inidicated by Argo, clambered up a cliff, down into an underground cave on the otherside and then up another cliff until they had arrived at the top of the highest mountain in the forest range. True enough, despite the 30 minute long journey, the path had been quiet and safe, except for three small encounters which were disposed off easily enough with Kirito's sword and Asuna's rapier.

When they had arrived at the top of the mountain, a very tired blonde had began cursing the skies, loudly wondering which retard was dumb enough to stay in a god forsaken place like this.

Needless to say, the old NPC who had just walked out of the tiny shack behind Naruto to greet the visitors had heard every single word and hadn't taken it very nicely. In fact, he had immediately painted the blonde's face without a single word, or even without either of them initiating the quest.

The blonde was in a word, horrified.

"They're so cuuute!" Asuna crooned with a wide grin before turning to the giggling Rat beside her, "Don't you think so Argo-chan?"

Kirito began banging his face on the table, rattling the ceramic cups of tea in front of them with each bang while Naruto gave her a pointed glare, "I swear to God... I'll... do not tell anyone about this."

"No wonder you wouldn't sell the information, if you accept the quest, there's no option to cancel unless you want to have these marks permanently drawn on your face. And to pass we have to break that stupidly huge rock with just our hands. Damn you Naruto. Damnnnn yewwwww... You're the only person I know that can somehow piss off an NPC of all damned things." A muffled voice came from the facedown Kirito, causing Asuna to burst into crystal clear laughter once more.

"Ca-can we take pictures in SAO, Argo-chan?"

"Of course-sa. I happen to have a few special items for recording images or sounds with me right now. I'll even let you have one for free, Asuna-chan."

"Wait! Free?! What happened to Argo the Information Dealer who doesn't even know what the word free means!?" Naruto demanded loudly.

"Ara, it's because I'm in such a good mood today. Besides," She began giggling creepily, "An eye for an eye right Baka-ruto?" was Argo's sinister reply.

Kirito began banging the table with his face again, "This is all your fault. This is entirely your fault. You couldn't stop at pissing an NPC off; you had to piss Argo off as well?"

"Imagine, the White Archer and the Black Swordsman in the newspaper, then underneath those fearsome titles are these pictures..."

"Snrrk..." Asuna buried her face in her hands, desperately trying not to burst out laughing in a completely unladylike manner.

"GAHAHAHAHA!"

She failed.

"Aren't you two getting along a little TOO well?!" the two males cried out comically.

******The Hunter******

Naruto carefully chipped off the edges of a block of wood that he had obtained by asking Kirito to cut down a solid tree that they found at the bottom of the mountain, not that it would really matter seeing as how he lacked any spears to use it with at the moment.

"Hey, White Archer." A teasing voice interrupted his carving, causing him to look up, thankful for the pitifully low and flickering light that the single candle light provided enough for him to carve with, but not enough for anyone to see the scribbling on his face.

"Oh, Asuna, what's up?" he asked lowly as he went back to shaving the square block of wood, bit by bit.

"Hmm... I was just bored. Kirito's outside punching that rock and Argo-chan's sleeping so there wasn't much for me to do." She set down the platter she had been carrying, a steaming mug of tea on it.

Naruto quirked an amused eyebrow as his hands continuously carved into the wood despite his lack of attention, speaking of long experience and practice.

"Do-don't get the wrong idea, I just wanted to thank you and Kirito for helping me. That idiot has one too."

"I didn't even say anything." The blonde pointed out, "But thank you, although I don't think we did anything worthy of thanks."

Asuna turned away and sat down on the stool on the other side of the room, watching the blonde steadily whittle down the piece of wood with an intense demeanour, humming quietly for a contemplative moment before speaking again, "You might not think so, but not many people would give a quiet, gloomy stranger a second look, much less welcome them in with open arms and teach them things that others consider trivial knowledge."

She knew the feeling, Asuna mused, she had always been one of the star students in her class, things that others did not understand came to her easily. Sadly enough, she hadn't been graceful enough to help those that weren't as lucky, or as patient. Even back then she had been aloof and gloomy.

It was easy to see how badly she had acted now that she was on the receiving end.

"That's still not really anything special. I want to get everyone out of the game as fast as possible; a lot of others do as well. You just haven't met them, wait until we hit the third floor, that's when guilds can be made. Lots of them; some dedicated to teaching newbies and helping them survive, others will be dedicated to clearing the game, will pop up like mushrooms by then."

"Just accept that I'm grateful will you?" She glared at him, "I mean... I've never laughed like that before, it felt really good to just let go, while we're with friends." She mumbled blushingly causing the blonde to chuckle.

"What are you going to do when morning comes?" he asked carefully, eyeing the girl while his hands carved nonstop.

"What do you mean?"

"Kirito and I probably won't leave the mountain for a week at most; you can't stay with us doing nothing. Even then, after we go down, we'll more than likely separate. Neither of us are really the type of people to mesh well in long term teams."

"Oh... I... I guess I'll head to Urbus with Argo-chan then." Naruto flinched slightly at the strangely sad reply before pulling out a small book that he handed to the girl, "You'll be alright though. That book was written by me and Argo, it contains lots of tips and tricks to find the best places to stay, finding the most suitable spots to gain experience points, stuff like that, and as long as you stay with Argo, you'll be pretty safe. I think... ok I hope. I'll pray for you?"

She gave him a flat stare that made him chuckle uneasily.

"Do you carve a lot?" She questioned idly as she flipped through the small book.

"I guess. My... _sister _wasn't very healthy, so she spent a lot of time in the hospital. I used to carve all sorts of animals for her to play with, in the hospitals." Naruto smiled softly, "The nurses even began calling me the Boy-who-Carved since her entire room was almost full of them."

"Why was she in the hospital?" Asuna asked with concern.

"Car accident." The blonde answered flatly.

"Oh... then it's no wonder you want to leave the game. You have sister waiting for you to come back huh, Nii-chan?" Asuna said with an envious smile.

Naruto smiled bitterly, "She went into a coma 6 years ago."

******The Hunter******

******Play ****LiSA – crossing field**

Three days later, two men, one dressed entirely in black and the other in white finally entered Urbus, despite being the two out of three people that had defeated Illfang.

"This is troublesome; we just missed the boss Raid party even though we rushed to finish that old man's quest to come down from that stupid mountain in time. That and I'm out of peanuts. Again." The one white said, shifting the massive quiver on his back that held a bucket load of spears.

"... The second floor's boss is that lizard man isn't it?" his friend in black asked lowly.

Naruto pulled up his menu to check the private message that Argo had sent him, "Yeah. Same skills from beta, nothing visibly different, only equipped by a two handed Pole arm and breath attacks." He sighed, "Should we try and catch up? They should have just started on him so we might be able to make it before he dies and at least help a little."

Seeing the raven haired boy respond with a simple nod, the two of them started running through the town at a surprisingly fast pace.

It only took both of them 30 minutes to reach the towering black iron doors of the boss room, already hanging wide open to show an ongoing battle on the inside, the two of them stood hidden behind the shadows of the great door as they watched the pitched battle.

"Hum... should we help?" Naruto commented, idly running one finger up and down a spear as he watched about two full raid parties surround the boss who was already down to 2 remaining HP gauges.

"96 people. Not a bad turnout, don't think they're going to need our help. If I remember right, this guy was the easiest boss amongst all the rest."

"It doesn't look like their winning though, unless them getting their asses handed to them is actually a secret strategy we don't know about." Naruto observed flatly as the lizard started pounding the ground wildly, sending anyone near him to the ground coupled with a noxious gas that sent everyone into the poisoned status.

"Can I go home?"

"Screw you."

"Oh well. The faster we finish this, the faster I can get my peanuts."

Both of them began running towards the battle, "Oi, Kirito, a little boost?"

The raven haired boy nodded and dashed forward ahead of the blonde before spinning around in a crouched ready position, two hands clasped together.

The running blonde leapt onto the clasped palms with one foot, and pushed off with the added burst of power that his greatly boosted Strength, increased by the passive bonuses that the Hidden Skill Martial Arts granted them, the manoeuvre threw him, his body as straight and tense as an arrow, nearly halfway up till the very top of the chamber when he flipped and released the quiver on his back, flinging all the spears into the air around him.

On the ground, Kirito charged straight at the boss with his sword in a reverse grip, skidding to a stop right underneath the boss with a twist, that sent him spinning with the momentum, the sword's blade began glowing with a massive red aura at the apex of the spin, as the raven haired boy came full circle with a bellow.

"_Vorpal Strike!"_

The resulting explosive blast sent the 10 foot tall lizard rocketing upwards into the air, twisting around at an awkward angle, futilely trying to regain its balance when it found himself eye to eye with the business ends of 9 glowing spears notched on the same stupidly huge bow.

"_Original Skill; Lunar Fang."_

By the time Naruto had landed with wet splat, his clothes were splattered in eyeball fluid and greyish brain matter, "That... really wasn't a good idea." He commented with distaste as he tried to squeeze the blood out of his scarf.

"You've **never** had a good idea. Period. Like that time you tried to break the rock with your head instead of your hands."

"It cracked didn't it?"

"I don't even know where to start expressing how stupid I think that reply was." Kirito rolled his eyes without another word as he began pouring status healing potions down the throats of poisoned and paralysed players.

"I-It's them! The White Archer and the Black Swordsman!"

"You **probably** should have left them paralysed until we got out of here." Naruto concluded blandly as more and more people began chattering.

******The Hunter******

Author's Note

Yes, nice debate. Either I go for Naruto/Asuna and gain the distinction of being the first person to write that pairing in this particular site, requiring me to make up a whole new plotline, or I leave Asuna with Kirito, who by the way happens to be the first competent, legitimately, badass male anime harem lead in YEARS, instead of the standard whiny harem retards that get by just because they are... **Nice**? If nice were people were that lucky, I wouldn't be sitting at the pc right now.

Either way, it's gonna suck for me because of the backlash from either choice. XD

Yes that means I made the decision already.

No that does not mean I will tell you although you can find out the general direction I might take by counting the reviews yourself. Then again, that doesn't include the private votes I received.

Yes I'm an asshole.


	3. The Sister

**The Hunter Chapter 3**

**The Sister**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic. **

I received a rather impolite anon review from a reader: Another pathetic OOC Marry Sue, you might as well have written a pure SAO fic with an OC instead of shamelessly using Naruto to draw in more readers as an OOC.

It kinda pisses me off that he sort of does have a point, but in my defense, I'd just like to say that I've been reading a few of the other SAO/Naruto crossovers when I noticed some common issues amongst those that feature a chakra wielding Naruto. I was originally going down that path, and it was even in the concept drafts of _The Hunter, _but I honestly found even describing or thinking up a reasonable mechanic to allow jutsus into SAO to be an** incredible** pain in the ass. I mean how would the system detect the cues and activate, how would jutsus even reasonably work without a connection to a viable energy source (Chakra/body), unless you're saying that the mind can somehow compensate by neuron electricity alone or chakra from the body can flow into the game through the NerveGear, but then how would you control something ungoverned by the system? If the code for creating gusts of wind doesn't exist, it's not going appear in the game so how would a Rasengan appear as code, how would your Kage Bunshins know what to do, how the fuck can a Sharingan affect your opponent when you're not even making real eye contact? Hand waving all of the above seems like it would be even more of a mistake than using an OOC wouldn't it?

I'm not saying it's impossible, but it seems to depend on whether or not the writer can make it **seem** viable. Then again, most of the fics so far are pretty new, only about 3-5 chapters, so I wish the best of luck to those that decided to take the path I did not, I on the other hand, admit I'm a lousy writer and will therefore stick to my pathetic OOC of an archer.

On a completely unrelated side note, there's a disgusting amount of rule 34 in play for Asuna, couldn't even safely look for a decent picture of a blonde in SAO without hitting at least one NSFW picture of her.

**Soundtrack List**

K-ON! – No, Thank You!

ALTIMA – Burst the Gravity

Nakagawa Shouko - Happily Ever After

******The Hunter******

**24****th**** December 2022**

The weather simulator that governed every gust of wind, every cloud and even the smallest variation of temperature on the virtual floating city of Aincrad's was truly a magnificent piece of work.

While the four seasons were generally synchronized with reality and was one of the few ways to keep time in Aincrad, the degree of accuracy in reproducing the weather depended on a ridiculously large amount of variables; whether it was going to be a dry winter or a humid summer. In addition to the temperature outside, the system also considered rain and wind, moisture, dust level, and even insects gathering as parameters. The amount of work put into ensuring full immersion, into making Aincrad as close to reality as possible was almost overwhelming.

From a purely intellectual standpoint, Naruto could certainly admire the effort, however as he rubbed his eyes blearily, wincing from the bright glare of the sunlight that had just woken him from a restful slumber, the blonde could only curse them for being so detailed.

A cold breeze blew through the slightly open window, ruffling the soft golden hair on his scalp, causing him to shiver as the sleepy blonde turned off his alarm with a displeased sound. Now that he was cold, he knew there was no going back to sleep, giving in to the inevitable, the topless blonde reluctantly clambered out of the warmth and safety of his bed and stretched with a wide yawn.

Scratching his abs blearily, he threw on a simple shirt in a pathetic attempt at decency before making his way to the small kitchen and put a kettle on the stove with a fluidity that spoke of familiarity, igniting the small stove with a tap of the menu. Minutes later, the kettle began whistling and the blonde took it off the stove and threw some herbs into the kettle. Setting it back down, he flicked his left hand, drawing down a menu from which he selected an option. Almost instantly, a rich earthy smell filled the small kitchen and the blonde happily poured a thick brown liquid into three mugs.

He heard the sound of cloth rustling from behind him as the other inhabitant of his small shack, set on the seventh floor of Aincrad, Tardue, and jointly paid for by its inhabitants, woke up to the smell of coffee.

It was small, cosy and plain house, each room was about as big as normal 8 tatami room in Tokyo, featuring a small bathroom, a kitchen and three rooms, built on the edges of the main city which two floors beneath the current frontline for SAO's clearers.

A sleepy looking Asuna made her way into the kitchen, looking as if the only thing keeping her conscious was her nose, which wasn't really that far from the truth.

"Yo. Morning." The blonde cheerfully greeted the half lidded girl with a grin, pushing the second mug across the counter towards her, "It's a cold day, get some coffee before you leave."

"Muughh…" was the sleepy reply as the brown haired girl, dressed in a simple gown meandered towards the blonde. Leaning into his side with a satisfied puff of her cheeks, she gratefully grabbed the mug with both hands, savouring the both the warmth of the blonde she was leaning against and the warmth and smell of the coffee before practically inhaling the contents of the ceramic cup.

Despite being in a game where everything was virtual and knowing that the caffeine was nothing but electrical messages selected from an archive to be sent to her brain through the Nerve Gear, the simulated earthy taste and the sensation of caffeine flowing through her veins was still more than enough to wake her up. It was something more of a habit rather than any real need for the black liquid, then again, she never had had this habit until Naruto finally managed to brew a decent cup of Joe after much experimentation. Snake guts were never meant to be used that way, she remembered with another shiver.

When the warmth of the coffee had seeped itself deep into her extremities, she let out a bone deep sigh of happiness, "Kirito's not awake yet?"

"Mu... he came back late last night. I think he was training out again." The blonde muttered, peering into his cup.

Asuna accepted the reply with a simple nod, it wasn't really that surprising. Despite staying in the same house, all three of them had their own quirks and preferences. The two men usually woke up early before going out to train alone while she looked for a raid party or did quests with the other two when she needed help. More often than not, they would all then gather again at night for dinner before going back to bed.

It was a stable and quiet life despite being stuck in life and death game but she could not say that she disliked it; going out in the morning, training and getting stronger and being greeted warmly when she came back with her body all sore, usually by the older blonde.

It was a home and a cosy way of life that she really didn't dislike.

"I'll go get him." Asuna was jolted out of her cup of coffee when the blonde replied, only nodding with a smile, too lazy to say anything.

Swirling the mug of coffee in one hand, the blonde shuffled his way to the last room in the house and was just about to turn the corner when the final member of their little household appeared, his raven haired tousled cutely, rubbing his eyes sleepily when he walked straight into a wall of muscle, "Ack!"

The taller blonde immediately grabbed the black haired boy around his waist to stop him from falling down on his butt, "Oi, oi, I know you're sleepy but at least watch where you're going." He groused at the sleepy boy on his chest.

Steadying himself with one hand on the blonde's chest, Kirito murmured an indistinct apology before heading straight for the mug on the table.

When his eyes were finally properly opened properly by the fresh taste of the bitter brew, he quirked an eyebrow at the blushing girl on the other side of the table, who's nose happened to be bleeding.

Again.

"Are you **SURE **you're not sick?" he asked her with concern.

Asuna resolutely shook her head and dashed out the house with a quick apology and a bright red face.

Behind him Naruto glared at his mug of coffee with an almost exasperated curiosity, "What in the world am I doing wrong? Why does everything I cook seem to make her nose bleed?"

"Dunno. Whatever the reason, she didn't even take her usual morning bath. Anyway, are you going out the usual spot again?" Kirito asked.

"I guess. Just for a while though, I just need one more point to getthe **Pursuit **skill. I want to go somewhere else after that." Naruto replied vaguely as he drained the last bit of his coffee.

Kirito nodded without further questions. Unlike Asuna who preferred to level with a party or through quests because of her rapier's lack of any ranged or AOE skills, he liked to solo in areas with high spawn rates, mowing through truckloads of monsters with his sword skills, this method was usually the best way of obtaining experience, comparable only to how Naruto usually gained his experience.

The older blonde preferred places where spawn rates were slower, but yielded better experience points, fighting monsters on a one versus one basis as a fleet footed spearman. However, despite the high experience point yield as Solo players, this method of training was extremely risky since they had no support or back up.

Even a single mistake could be lethal. For example, Naruto usually chose to train on _Blackbone Mountain _on the ninth floor where the big but slow _Armoured Bears_ spawned, taking them down one by one with his spears while avoiding their poison tipped claw slashes. Even getting a simple scratch would throw the blonde into a paralyzed state, leaving him completely open for the _Bears _to maul easily.

Kirito himself trained in the Berry Forest located in the South quadrant of the ninth floor where _Greater Nepenths_, human sized Venus flytraps that spawned like flies, much less exp than _Bear_s but died easily after a hit or two. The only problem being that they had advanced algorithms and employed tactics where they either continuously tried to surround him with numbers or hit him with flailing vines that could easily stun lock him with rapid attacks.

Yawning widely, Kirito waved his mug at the blonde, "Good luck. Don't die or rather; make sure you cook dinner before you do."

Naruto smiled as he placed the mug into the sink and threw his white cloak onto his shoulder, "Cold bastard. I'll see yea later." To himself he mumbled, "I'm going to use less salt tonight... Maybe she won't bleed so much then... High blood pressure I guess. Oh by the way, Kirito?"

"Hmm?"

"Try to come back early tonight. I'm cooking something big. I'll send a message to Asuna later as well."

"Hai. Hai. Good luck."

When the door had closed behind the blonde, Kirito glanced at the wall where a calendar hung, "That's right... We just cleared the eighth floor didn't we? If you have time to do something like that, why don't you use it to level faster..." he muttered lowly.

******The Hunter******

A tall muscular man with an open fronted white cloak appeared out of a shower of white lights encircling his lean torso and a white hood pulled down over his hair though some golden bristles poked out from under the covering; a great bow made of some undetermined wood strapped to his back along with quiver of spears.

When his sapphire blue eyes opened once more, he looked around the pavilion warily. Despite the front lines already being at the ninth floor where discrimination towards beta testers was more or less nonexistent amongst the clearers, the resentment was still somewhat prevalent amongst the middle and lower levelled players that gathered in the lower levels, especially the City of Beginnings.

Without another word, the man began running towards the centre of the circular CoB at a light jog with his white cloak flowing out behind him. The stone buildings, built with a medieval style that resembled those that might have been found in old England seemed to blur by as he ran through the yellow stone streets. Within minutes, the CoB wasn't really that big, the main gates of the Black Iron castle slowly loomed out of the gloomy air at the end of the street he was currently on. Passing though the open gates, and slowing down to a fast walk, he arrived at base of a gigantic monolith made of black stone that served as a gravestone for all the people that had failed to escape Aincrad, and never would.

A small smile appeared on his lips as he pulled out a bunch of flowers from his inventory, which he laid at the base of the massive black stone grave decorated with row upon row of names, some of which were crossed out with a single, simple line, as if mocking how easily one's life could be snuffed out, especially for the most trivial reasons.

The ones crossed out with a line were the ones that he was here for.

Silently, he got to his knees and slapped his palms together in prayer with his eyes closed under the hood, "Yo, I'm back again. I just thought you might want to know that we're already at the ninth floor; it won't take much longer before everyone gets out, there's just another 91 to go. You guys just rest here and wait patiently; I'll definitely clear the game so that all of you didn't die in vain."

Clapping his hands another time, the blonde slowly got up and brushed down the creases on his trousers and cloak. He was about to leave and go back o get dinner ready when the sound of an argument reached his ears.

"But you have to help me! My sister's been missing for 2 days already! She's a part of your guild right!? Why won't you look for her?"

It was the voice of a young girl, desperately pleading, coming from further in the complex, obviously at the entrance to the _Black Iron Castle_ which was being used by the _'The Army'_, as their home base. Without being too conspicuous, the white cloaked man slowly stepped behind the monolith, into its shadows to listen in to the argument.

"I'm really sorry, but we can't spare anyone else to go onto the front lines." A gruff voice that sounded genuinely sympathetic replied. Activating his _Tracking_ skill with a mental command, two blue flames gleamed in the dark and his vision zoomed further into the complex to see a vaguely familiar tall man bowing to a pink haired girl dressed in a leather tunic, white undershirt and a light pink miniskirt, no doubt the one whose sister was in trouble.

Beside him a familiar looking ratty man with stringy red hair, the row of medals on his chest signifying a higher rank than the tall man in a plain green uniform beside him, laughed in a disgusting manner as he leered at the girl with a heart shaped face and crying blue eyes, "She's dead already kid, serves her right for being so arrogant and hissy too. Now leave. We're too busy to look for someone who couldn't even follow orders."

The massive gates of the Black Iron Castle slammed shut in her face, the clanging of the iron gates echoing around the empty compound. Dejectedly, the crying girl fell to her knees and began sobbing in to her hands.

Carefully making sure that no one was around, the man in white slowly walked out of the shadows, thick boots making rhythmic clicking sounds on the yellow stone, though the girl failed to notice his presence at all. Not very surprising, he figured she was too caught up in her problem to notice very much.

Pulling down the hood to make sure that he wasn't recognized, the blonde verbalized his question, "What's your sister's name? And on what floor was she supposed to be on?"

The pink haired girl jumped a little and scrambled away from him, wide, wet blue eyes peering up at him in fear, "Wh-Who are you?"

"The name's Naruto. I was just passing by when I heard you asking the _The Army_ for help." Naruto squatted down in front of the girl and pulled back his hood to show her a warm and comforting smile, "You're sister is missing right? Which floor is she on, and what is her name?"

She slightly nodded, "Her name's Lightning, typed with English letters, the last I heard from her, was that she was on the eighth floor with all the other _Army_ members for the eight floor boss battle." Her voice broke a little, "But when the Clearing members came back two days ago, she wasn't with them. Her name is still on the _Monument of Life_, so I know she's still alive!" the pink haired girl added desperately!".

Naruto tapped his chin for a thoughtful moment, "Can you describe her? I was there as well, but I don't recall meeting anyone with that In-game-name off the top of my head."

The young girl, who he surmised to be about Kirito's age nodded hesitantly, had the expression of someone unsure of whether what she was doing is right but couldn't think of anything else except accept the help of a stranger, "She has pink hair that is cut a little shorter than mine and blue eyes like me. She was wearing a white leather jacket and a brown leather skirt when she left. Ah, we also have the same band I do on her right bicep."

Naruto accepted the friend invite, giving her name a quick glance he grinned and petted the girl's head reassuringly "Yosh, Your sister might be in a dungeon right now, that's why she can't reach you through private messages. I'll do my best to find her. For now, add me to your friend's list so that we can contact each other through PMs. Don't worry so much about it, alright? Just go rest at an inn, promise I'll get her back."

She bowed down lowly, touching her forehead to the pavement, "Pl-please help my sister. I would go myself, but she insisted that I never leave the City of Beginnings, so I'm still only level 5 or I would have gone to look for her myself. I can never repay you for helping a stranger like me."

Naruto stood up with a grin, "The only payment I need is for you to smile. For now, just wait for my message, Serah, and stay safe until I bring your sister back to you." Wasting no time, he spun around and dashed towards the teleporter, cloak flaring out behind him as he gave the small clock on his interface a quick glance. It was still early, so there was plenty of time for him to make it back by dinner.

Hopefully.

Serah's sister was still alive, but judging by the lack of contact from her, it might not stay that way for long. He really couldn't expect her to last too long. Practically leaping through the portal, the blonde was hurled out on the other side at the village of _Friben_, the main village on the eighth floor. Had anyone else been watching, all they would have seen was a white shadow almost being catapulted out of the portal before flipping around in mid air into an upright position and acrobatically landing with a skid. He crouched and sprung forwards again, simultaneously activating the _Pursuit_ skill as he ran, which he ironically only managed to gain earlier today.

While _Tracking_ had identical capabilities with its successor,_ Pursuit,_ it only applied to monsters (Beast or Bird type monsters), whereas _Pursuit _was capable of tracking humanoids and NPCs as well as multiple targets with greater accuracy as well as giving him passive vision bonuses that enhanced accuracy and range of sight every 100 levels and increased damage against fleeing opponents when_ Mastered_.

Rapidly scanning the areas around the main compound, broken traces of footsteps belonging to the player avatar _Lightning _began glowing faintly on his HUD. The blonde sighed in some relief, luckily for him, the tracks were only a day old or so, any longer and there would be nothing for him to find, which would have complicated the entire situation needlessly.

Following the footsteps, Naruto ducked and weaved his way through the thick tropical landscape. Halfway through the village, the glowing footsteps disappeared entirely due to the low skill level, but it was enough for him to guess the general direction and pick up the broken trail again further into the forest, which wandered off towards of the tower that stood forebodingly right in the middle of the floor. Unlike all the previous floors below it, _Friben_ was different in that the entire floor was covered in forest with nothing but a scattering of small villages all around the topography, serving as safe points for tired players. Friben itself, the main village was the largest off all the small villages, was barely half the size of the City of Beginnings and there was no particular importance or attractions that the floor held save the main dungeon. Even the usual secret dungeon had been short and unrewarding.

Sounds of animals chirping, roaring and snuffling reached his ears as he dashed past the forest animal themed monsters heedlessly, it was considered extremely impolite, not to mention flat out dangerous to anyone in the vicinity but he really didn't think there would be a problem. By now, almost everyone would have left the eighth floor already, following the trend of staying with the front lines until things settled down a little, not to mention almost everybody was taking the day off as celebration for the clearing of the eighth floor. Except a certain few idiots that shall go unnamed.

When he reached the short length of steps that led into the dungeon, the glowing footsteps disappeared entirely, signalling the end of his skill. At its current level, _Pursuit _could only be held for 10 minutes with a cool down of 15minutes between uses. Heaving a disappointed sigh, Naruto resigned himself to searching the entire 30 mini levels inside the tower.

Finding a needle in a haystack never sounded more appropriate.

Hefting the bow on his back into a more comfortable position, the blonde set his jaw and pushed open the huge doors. With a weird sense of urgency.

Pulling up the completed map of the tower, the blonde began hurtling towards ever suspicious looking nook on cranny, floor after floor, dodging and hiding from as many enemies as possible to save time. With a resigned sigh, he reminded himself to take the _Hiding_ skill when he next could, it would make everything so much more convenient, especially if he needed to conceal his presence.

All players received 3 beginner skill slots when they logged into SAO for the first time but it was possible to gain more of those slots by levelling up naturally or doing specific (Read: Humiliating and embarrassing, Kayaba was an asshole. Period.) quests that became available every 20 floors. There were apparently 2 more hidden slots, hidden in the programming as part of the reward of 2 secret quests that could be found, but as of last week, no one had even an inkling about where to start looking for the secret quests or its prerequisites. Part of the intrigue of playing SAO was of course the incredible variety of skills and customizations available in the game, to mimic real life as close as possible, but a player could only received a maximum of 20 by the system's limits, so there was great degree of skill micro management required in order to get the best results, especially during the early to middle game phases.

Each skill could only be levelled up independently by using it, like the _Pursuit _skill, or by certain requirements such as the Battle Healing or Armour skills that could only be levelled by taking damage. As they progressed higher and higher, the equipped Skills granted passive or active bonuses every 100 levels, such as the two handed spear _Pierce_ skill which was learnt at level 200, the passive movement bonuses granted by level 300 Cloth Armour skill or the Passive Strength and Dexterity stat bonuses that the Martial Arts Skill granted at level 100.

The way the system and skills worked created an incredible level of customization for avid players, giving them a true sense of achievement as they progressed, both in character level, Skill level and the game. Kayaba Akihiko... for all his lunacy of trapping ten thousand people in a death game was a true genius of ridiculous proportions. So much in depth forethought about the player-player-environment interaction, every single loophole, and then programming every single bit into the game by himself, Naruto could only imagine that it must have taken him a near titanic effort and only 6 years to bring Aincrad from concept to reality.

"Bad, bad Naruto. Totally not the time to be thinking about insane men. I've got a girl to find." He muttered to himself. Activating _Pursuit _once more, he searched around the main staircase, heaving a relieved sigh when the faintly glowing footsteps showed up once again. Taking the opportunity, he downed a quick drink of water before hurrying through the portal to the 28th floor at the top of the stairs.

At the top of the stairs, the sound of rocks being rocks being repeatedly crashed reached his ears, as if something huge was repeatedly banging on a wall. Immediately a sense of relief flooded his tense body, if whatever it was that was attacking her was still doing it, then it meant that she was still alive. Without wasting anytime, the blonde immediately hurried off in the general direction of the sound, the map that floated in front of his face told him that the short path led off the main road into a dead end.

Naruto skidded to a halt and crouched behind the last turning, peeking from behind to cover to check on whatever it was that was making that noise. A massive humanoid bull, a Minotaur with a double ended axe that was as tall as the _Monument of Life_ charged into the rough rocky surface that signified the end of the path, slowly, the massive beats took a step backwards before repeating the manoeuvre again, to Naruto's confusion.

It didn't look like there was anything there, nor did he see anybody on the ground, so what in Akihiko's name was the stupid bull doing? Testing out its stupidly tough skull?

The Minotaur lowered his head, nosing at a thin vertical crack in the wall that Naruto hadn't noticed and emitted a massive, deep roar. The sound of someone scrabbling deeper into the crevice, away from the Minotaur caused him to blink in surprise before activating narrowing his eyes at the crack in the wall. Blue eyes gleamed in the dark as his vision zoomed itself, piercing through the light fog in the distance, revealing a heart shaped face with smudges of dirt on it, and tousled pink hair that was untied hanging down one shoulder. Eyes that were equally as blue as his own peered out through the crack with a fierce look, as if willing the bull to turn into well done steak with a look.

Naruto whistled lowly, now that was what he called a glare.

He turned back to the bull and fluidly notched a spear on his bow, a recurring mini boss on the 8th floor, Rampaging Minotaur with ridiculously high strength stats enhanced with its equally ridiculous double sided axe, possessed a very basic A.I. that was similar to the Trembling Ox on the 2nd floor in that whenever it saw a target, it generally didn't stop chasing until it either died, or the player managed to run into a safe zone, bulling its way through sheer rock if necessary.

**Play** **K-ON! – No, Thank You!**

Chewing his lip, he let the spear fly, the red comet whistled through the air... and bounced off the ridiculously thick back of the Minotaur, the bull barely even noticed the tiny reduction in its HP gauge and continued to slam the edge of its axe into the crevice, as if trying to wedge it open.

"Well... Like they always say, if you can't beat him..." Naruto muttered before sprinting out of his cover at a low to the ground as he notched another spear. Vaulting high above the Minotaur, he let loose a rain of spears that pelted its thick skull uselessly while upside down. Streaming his body into a thin arrow, the blonde slipped under a wild axe swing from an enraged Minotaur and landed directly front of the Minotaur.

He cocked a black iron spear, far more bigger and powerful than the ones he usually used and rolled between the Minotaur's legs. He looked up, "...Kick him in the gonads." And launched the _Pierce_ empowered spear skywards, directly up into the Minotaur's danglies.

The bull's eyes bugged and it... squeaked in pain, as it began trying to stomp on the insect darting around its feet.

Diving between the huge hooves, the blonde rolled and darted into the small crevice that barely managed to fit him and his bow.

He pulled out a bag and waved at the girl who looked like she was about to hit him with a cheery smile, "Yo, I'm Naruto, are you Lightning?"

"You shot him in the balls." The girl replied in disbelief, shock and confusion, mostly disbelief, "You actually shot him in the balls."

"Well, yes. Complete realism has its upsides and downsides. Soft spots happen to be an upside." He offered a bag to her, "Peanut?"

"Are you insane?! Wait no, don't answer that. What were you thinking? How did you even know I was here?! If you knew I was here, why did you jump in here with me to corner yourself, you already had his attention, you could've just left while I escaped!" Lightning huffed after finally spewing out everything she had been holding in.

"Yeah... is that all you wanted to ask?" When she nodded, the blonde continued, "In order of the questions you asked, I can't run that fast so getting his attention is suicidal unless I have a nice spot to hide in. Your sister asked for my help and..." The blonde replied cheerfully before setting down his bow with a thud and began pulling out spears and sticking them into the earth around them, "I can't run away but getting his attention on me however, let's me do this."

"Do what? Wait, my sister?!" The girl asked disbelievingly.

"Heavy weapon skill,_ Rebellion_, common to all heavy weapon classes, only usable when the user is the target of hate, dramatically increases damage and piercing capabilities for a short period of time." He uttered quietly in reply as he sighted down the shaft and waited for the proper moment. The Minotaur began his cycle again, charging into the rocky surface uselessly, taking a step back and repeating his earlier charge. Naruto tensed himself as the Minotaur began the next part of its attack sequence, pounding on the ground, and roaring.

The moment the gaping jaw dripping with cow saliva appeared outside the cave and began inhaling for the intimating roar, Naruto narrowed his eyes, "_Original Skill: Crescendo."_

Deep blue comets began rushing out of the thin opening; the first spear buried itself at the back of the jaw, before being stopped by the thick skin, before anything else could happen, another spear slammed itself into the butt of first spear, and another, and another. Lightning watched in disbelief as the blonde's hands nearly blurred, his face a cold stone carving of concentration, notching and releasing blazing spear after blazing spear with near ridiculous accuracy, each hit slamming the entire procession of spears up its throat until the first spear burst through the back of the Minotaur's cranium with predictable results.

The dead Minotaur fell down face first on the ground with a final earth shaking rumble, dissolving into a shower of lights after a few tense moments.

"Phew." His shoulders sagged in relief and offered a blue teleport crystal to her, "Shall we go back? Serah's waiting for her Nee-san."

The pink haired girl who had fallen to her knees looked up at him in disbelief at the completely... random blonde that had suddenly appeared in her life. The lost look was suddenly wiped away from her face and she slapped his hand away, getting up with a forceful growl, as she pushed past him, "I don't need your help. I can get back by myself."

The blonde shrugged as he followed behind her, "Suit yourself."

A few minutes later, an angry Lightning spun around at the whistling blonde behind her, "Why are you following me!?"

He nonchalantly notched a spear and shot a monster that had been creeping up behind her, "That's why. You don't have weapons do you? Or any crystals or potions. Or you wouldn't have been stuck in that crack for a day and a half." Naruto observed idly, "How did you even get stuck there anyway?"

"That's none of your business. I'll get back on my own." She coldly replied.

The blonde simply quirked an eyebrow at her, "I promised your little sister that I'm bringing you back, and nothing's going to stop me. That includes you. The only reason I haven't knocked you out and carried you back to the CoB like a sack of potatoes is because of the Sexual Harassment Protection Code."

"Leave my sister out of this, she shouldn't have asked for your help. I am perfectly capable of dealing with monsters and getting on my own." Lightning retorted sharply, "You're just another idiot with a hero complex in this god forsaken game chasing trying to impress girls."

Blue eyes immediately went stone cold and he lashed out with one hand, slapping the girl who was half a head shorter than him across the cheek. The marker above his head instantly turned orange, "Shouldn't have asked for help? Nothing to do with her? She was crying in City of Beginnings, begging members of The Army for help when they refused. She was so worried and you say she has nothing to do with this? She. Was.** Crying**. And. **Begging**. What kind of a person are you to let your little sister cry and **worry **about you?!"

He grabbed the stunned girl's arm roughly, "Now move it. I plan on getting you back to Serah before the sun sets."

Lightning obediently followed the rough grip no her arm in a subdued silence, "I'll co-come. Stop pulling on me."

Rolling his eyes, the blonde let go and focused on keeping the girl behind him safe until they reached the CoB.

******The Hunter******

Cold sweat shot down the back of Naruto's neck as he stepped through the portal, completely regretting the fact that he had lost his temper. The fact that Lightning hadn't stopped glaring a hole at the back of his head only made it worse as his body rematerialized in the centre of the City of Beginnings. An incredibly silent Lightning appeared behind him moments later.

"She should be around. I already sent her a message that we were on our way back." Naruto murmured lowly as he made to step back into the portal.

"Wait."

Naruto froze with his back to her, "Yeah?"

"Tha-thanks." She muttered with averted eyes.

"Yeah. Just don't leave her alone again. You don't want to know how much it will hurt when you lose her."

He lifted his hand to reopen the portal when a high pitched scream echoed around the square.

Lightning widened her eyes in horror at the familiar voice before darting off towards the source without any hesitation whatsoever, "Serah!"

Cursing under his breath, the white archer immediately chased after the pink haired hair, knowing that she had no weapons on her at all, "Wait!"

Running down the small corridor, both archer and swordswoman skidded to a halt in a small alley behind the Black Iron Castle to see Serah being surrounded by a group of men in green uniforms surrounding her.

The leader, a ratty looking man that Naruto now remembered from the first boss fight was standing in the middle of the circle, leaning over a trembling pinkette. Three or four more men in green uniforms unique to The Army were leering down at her. Luckily, they were still in the save zone so none of them could or had directly harmed the young girl, but they were boxing her in, slowly pushing her towards the exit with their bodies.

The two clearers shared a look and nodded, as one both of them leapt up, using their agility and dexterity to run along the wall, bypassing the wall of men and landing behind Serah. Naruto immediately stepped in front of Serah, shielding her with his own body while the older pinkette crouched down to comfort her sister, "What is the meaning of this? Did we just find you **trying** to push someone out of safe zone?"

Behind the men, at the spot that Naruto and Lightning had just left, fearful spectators began gathering and excited murmuring could be heard from them.

"Thi-this is bad, Aniki, there's a lot of people here now." A tall blocky man worriedly muttered to the stringy haired man.

He shut the taller man up with a glare before turning back to Naruto with an almost slimy smile, "What are you talking about? She was just asking us for directions. We were helping her find her sister when she suddenly started screaming and falsely accusing us of things we didn't do."

"Helping me?" Lightning spoke up as she stepped out from behind the blonde's broad back.

The ratty haired man immediately stumbled backwards as he paled dramatically, "Yo-you!"

"Me." She said with an almost frigid calmness, "I'm afraid your plan to kill me failed."

"Kill you?" Naruto echoed disbelievingly.

The murmuring got just that bit louder as the spectators, mostly players who were too afraid to leave the CoB watched on excitedly, the entire spectacle unfolding into what had been the most excitement they had in a month.

"He and his friends were part of my team. Shortly after the boss was defeated, they surrounded me and attacked me, yelling at me for being arrogant and an upstart that should know my place just because I gained ranks in _The Army _faster than they did." She replied offhandedly with an eerily flat tone, "They implied that I should _service _them if I wanted to live. I managed to escape but found myself being cornered by the Rampaging Minotaur in the room you found me in."

She lifted her finger to point at the pale man with red hair, "He was the leader."

"Is this true?" Naruto demanded angrily from the red head, unconsciously readying his bow in anger, causing the group of five men to stagger backwards from his wrath.

"What's going on here?!" Naruto couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose when he heard the Kansai Dialect, a rather unpleasantly familiar figure pushing his way through the crowd with a group of _Army _members behind him, all of them dressed in full _Army_ regalia, "Oh it's you again huh?"

"It's me. Your members were caught trying to PK Lightning and her sister." Naruto flatly stated as the situation slowly worsened, "I was unaware that _The Army_ has dropped low enough to become an orange guild. Orange players were the term used to address individuals who lacked any regard for life and the game, choosing to indulge in killing players despite knowing the costs. A group of orange players that banded together were generally known as Orange Guilds.

"Huh?!" Kibaou sneered slyly, "They were caught trying to PK someone? Is this true? Or is the great _Joker_ lying again?"

The five members including the rat man snapped to attention at Kibaou's presence, "He's lying, sir. We're all innocent here, we were just trying to help the girl when they appeared and started blaming us for stupid stuff like that. Clearly he is just jealous of _The Army_ and is trying to smear our name, you know, since no one likes him and he can't join a guild as a _Soloer_." The rat man finished with a cruel grin at his jab.

The pink haired girl leaned in to whisper into the blonde's ear, "That's Kibaou, he is a high ranked player in our guild. That rat guy and his friends are all under his jurisdiction."

"Alright. Let's try to push his buttons and see if he had any hand in this. Ask to bring this to the other top ranks." Nodding at the bit of information, Naruto calmly whispered back, "I've met Sinker before; and he seemed like a good guy. So I doubt something like this would be glossed over so easily."

Hearing a murmur of agreement, he stood aside for Lightning, "We have a witness. Plenty of people even saw them trying to push Serah out of the safety zone."

Nodding shortly, the aloof pink haired girl stepped forward, "Lieutenant Kibaou, I would submit a formal complaint regarding my _team, _if you can call them that_._ I was ambushed by my team members shortly after The Steel Orc, the boss of the eighth floor was officially defeated, citing my arrogance as the reason for my _forced_ retirement. I managed to fight my way out of their ambush but used up all my potions and durability of my weapons in the process. Further, I was cornered by the mini boss on the floor beneath the Boss room for a day and a half. If you will not take action, I shall go straight to Commander Sinker or Yuriel-san and demand justice and punishment for you and your squad."

The watching crowd began to turn their ire on the uniformed members and the volume of their harsh words drastically got turned up.

Dear old cactus head began sweating as the scale of what had happened slowly blew up in his face, obviously not expecting something of this magnitude. The way his eyes darted between the apprehensive Rat-like man and Lightning's flat stare told Naruto that he had obviously realized that sticking his neck out for his subordinate clearly wasn't going to be in his best interests, especially not if the matter was too big for him to cover up, "Uhm. Ye-yes, I understand _Sergeant _Lightning. Men arrest them and throw them in the dungeons, the-there's no need to bother Sinker with this. He's too busy running the Army after all."

The blonde internally wondered if they knew how pretentious all the ranks and such sounded, probably not, Kibaou really seemed like the type to pomp himself up with all sorts of important sounding stuff after all.

"You're going to believe him?" the men being arrested hollered desperately, "You said you would help us, Kibaou! Damn you!"

"WAIT! This is a lie! I challenge** You** to a duel Joker! If I win, you let us go!"

**Play ALTIMA – Burst the Gravity**

"What use would that serve? You are clearly guilty." Lightning spat out.

Naruto grinned coldly, "I accept. Just in time too, my bow is itching for something to shoot."

Lightning glared at him in disbelief as they moved the confrontation towards the central complex for more room, "Stop being so reckless! This isn't about you; you're going take the risk of letting him get away for fun?"

Cold blue eyes turned on her, "I can accept a lot of things. But he tried to hurt Serah, he tried to hurt you. Innocents that are just trying to escape the game, as it is going right now, he is just going to sit in a cell and rot." Those cold sapphires sharpened even further as the pinned the grinning rat standing across the square from him.

"I want him to suffer."

The arena, if you could call it that was nothing but a small elevated platform outside of the Black Iron Castle surrounded by interspersed thick marble pillars. Red and orange artificial light filtered through the large gaps of the pillars as the sun slowly set.

"This will be a 50 / 50 duel. Any complaints?" The red head sneered, the 50 / 50 rule meant that they would fight until either one of them hit the half point in their HP gauges, reducing the chances of a mistake like in a first hit duel and there was no chance of anybody dying due to the Safety Zone effect kicking in the moment someone's HP gauges dropped below 50%.

Naruto slowly walked forward with a flat out** innocent **smile and a hand held out, "Nope. May the best man win."

Grinning, his opponent grabbed the offered and they shook on it before both of them returned to the opposite sides of the arena, a floating, translucent window with a portrait of the blonde and the stringy red head appeared right in the middle with a countdown and their names displayed on it.

Beside a worried Lightning and Serah, someone lowly spoke, "Argo. We got here too late. The match is already over."

Over?

"Mou... I thought we could see him properly fighting a duel for once-sa. What a waste."

Serah turned around to find a raven haired swordsman, a brown haired girl with a rapier at her side and a short girl wearing a brown hooded cowl, "A-ano, what do you mean that the match is already over?" She pointed at the floating screen, "It hasn't even started yet."

The raven haired boy scratched the back of his head and dryly replied while Argo and Asuna began giggling, "If you want to duel Naruto there are two things you must absolutely do beforehand. The first; you must absolutely tell him that it has to be a fair fight with nothing but our own skills. Otherwise the idiot will cheat. And trust me, he **cheats.** **Outrageously**. The second, is never stand still, doing that is like asking him to put a spear between your eyes with a target painted on your face for better measure."

The countdown hit zero and the rat like man who was already in a crouch, with two daggers pulled out, sprung forward without any hesitation. The blonde, who hadn't even pulled out his spear or bow, calmly dodged the first swipe and back flipped before leaping over the man.

Running up a pillar, he agilely began leaping from pillar to pillar, the AGI build knife user following behind with little difficulty due to his specialty, "What's wrong Archer? Why are you running?! Scared?!"

Naruto landed while the red head immediately darted in to back stab him when the blonde back flipped over the dagger swipe without even looking, soaring over the rat man's head and landing in a crouch on the other side of the arena. Only then did he pull out his spear, "Nope, I'm just waiting."

"Waiting? For what?"

**[Boom!] **

The man who looked like a rat immediately began screaming as his pants exploded, liquid fire clinging to his entire body. Smiling coldly at the body rolling around on the ground, Nauto notched a spear, "For that."

He ended the battle with a spear to the testicles. Just because he could.

"How the fu-?"

Giggling, Asuna patted the taller pink haired girl on the shoulder, "Just don't let him touch you if you're going to fight with him. He'll pick your pocket without you realizing, only instead of taking something out like everybody else, he puts something in, usually something really nasty. In fact, that's how we usually tell whether he likes that person or not. If he **REALLY **doesn't like that person, expect to see his pants exploding in the most ludicrous way possible, sooner or later."

"Bu-but whe..." Realization dawned, "The handshake?!" Lightning asked incredulously.

"Yep. Now come on, you and you're sister are invited for the Christmas dinner." Asuna cheerfully replied.

Walking back to the group, he waved at them with a slightly startled look, "What are you guys doing here?"

Argo waved back, "You were late-sa, so we came to pick you up."

"Aww..." the blonde said tearily, "You guys **DO **care!"

"You wish, we were just hungry, and seeing as you're the only that can cook anything decent amongst any of us, so we came to see what was the hold up on our dinner, assuming it doesn't blow up on us like that guy, PoH, that is." Kirito grinned.

"Oh, is that his name? I never noticed. Meh." Naruto replied before cheerfully placing his hands on Serah's shoulder, "Now come on. You two are invited to the Christmas Party."

"E-eh? Us?" Serah muttered doubtfully as she glanced at her aloof sister, "I-I don't think we can come."

"Why not?" Lightning turned aside so that her sister couldn't see her face, "I guess... relaxing once in a while isn't too wrong."

"Nee-san... Thanks..." Serah jumped on her sister.

"Gaah! Not in front of all these people!"

******The Hunter******

**Play Shoko Nakagawa – Happily Ever After**

"Oi, Kirito, pass the potatoes!" A thuggish looking man dressed in red shirt and a head band cheerfully yelled at the blonde across the table. Kirito paused from his heated discussion, or rather, heated lecture to an amused Serah about game mechanics to hand the gravy soaked potatoes to the spiky haired man and his guild mates, the _Furinkazan._

Further, in the hall, a whole group of people, including a huge chocolate skinned man, his bald head shining in the candle light, and the short girl with whiskers, only she wasn't wearing her hood now, Argo, that she and Serah had met earlier, were talking about new spawn spots and resources.

Lightning stood uncomfortably in a corner, sipping some juice from a cup; she barely knew any of these people though she recognized quite a few of them from the Floor Boss Strategy meetings. Almost everyone here was well known in one way or another, leaders and forerunners in their own departments and chosen skills.

Argo the Information Dealer and fastest person on foot in SAO.

Egil, leader of the Merchants Guild.

Kline of the Elements, the only Clearer's Guild to never lose a single man no matter the odds.

Kirito the Black Swordsman.

Asuna the Red Flash.

Joker the White Archer.

A blonde interrupted the party as he walked out of the kitchen, carrying a massive steaming boar that he had apparently procured and roasted from the ninth floor. The resulting cheers was almost deafening as everyone rushed to cut the boar apart.

"Kline, put that stupid katana away!" Naruto yelled.

"Awww! Wouldn't carving the boar up with a katana be totally awesome though?"

"... Go ahead."

"Yosh! Let me show you my new sword skill!"

Lightning face palmed and deftly ducked a piece of flaming meat as pieces of roasted boar began flying everywhere.

"KLINE! NARUTO!"

Laughing cheerfully, the beautiful brown haired girl appeared beside her with her own cup of juice in hand, "Why are you just standing in a corner here? You should join them."

Lightning awkwardly shook her head, "No thanks, I think I'm going outside. It's getting a little... excitable in here."

The brown haired girl looked back at the table where everyone was dog piling a laughing blonde and Kline and found that she couldn't help but agree, "Sure, let's go out and get some air."

The two females stood side by side, leaning on the railing, the pink haired one staring into her cup while the brown haired one breathed in deeply and sighed happily as she looked up at the stars when she heard a mumble from beside her, "Why... How is everyone here so happy?"

"Hmmm? Why not?" Asuna replied in confusion.

Lightning swirled her cup of juice thoughtfully before elaborating quietly, "I stay on the first floor with my sister, Serah. Every day, it's nothing but gloom and darkness, everything I have and will do is to get out of this death trap with my sister. Relentlessly. Almost everybody else I've ever met so far, act the same way, including many of the people in that room, but here, why are they all smiling so brightly?"

"I guess. It's because of Naruto isn't it? There's a reason they call him the_ White _Archer."

"What do you mean?"

Asuna carefully considered her words, "I think... without him, everybody would indeed be as you say, I'd still be training alone like some mad woman by myself in some deep dark dungeon on Christmas night. Kirito would be alone, distancing himself from everyone and doing much of the same. But he wouldn't accept it. He stands there, bearing the worst of everything with us, works as hard as anybody else, but then he bulls his way into your life like some truck and he doesn't care if you **DON'T** want to be happy. He'll just drag you kicking and screaming towards it if he has to."

Asuna paused and sipped the juice to wet her throat, "He told me something once, there's a chance that everybody here won't make it out alive. We all know it, we accept it but in some way, he wants to make sure we at least get the best out of life, go out with a bang so to speak, cause we're not just fighting for ourselves here."

She leaned on the railing, "We're not just fighting for our own freedom. The wishes, the hopes of everyone who has already fallen and those who cannot fight for themselves, whether we want to or not, just by being on the front lines, we carry those hopes and wishes on our backs because that's just how being a human works. It sounds really bad at first, but somehow, it makes me want to work harder, to make everyone smile and leave the game together."

The brown haired girl blushed, "Ah, I'm sorry; I probably wasn't making much sense."

"No... It does. In a twisted way, self-sacrificial way." Lightning corrected her, "I want to get Serah out too, but it's no point if she suffers the entire time she's waiting for me."

Asuna just smiled and patted her on the back silently.

Suddenly, the sounds of two sets of feet reached their ears, causing them to tense and stare out in to the darkness.

The door swung open and a brown haired girl walked in with a worried expression, "Naruto, there's someone that wants to meet you."

"Huh? Who? I thought everyone was here already." The blonde replied from the couch where he was playing cards with Egil.

And loosing horribly, who knew those big ass fingers of his could move so fast.

A tall brown haired man, dressed in strange red robes that weirdly enough, reminded everyone present of a monk's robes, stepped in. Behind him a demure looking girl with fluffy pink hair, dressed in a blue kimono that came up to her thighs and a black bow behind her followed, standing slightly beside the tall stranger.

"Good afternoon." The distinguished gentleman greeted those present with a half bow.

The blonde slowly got up with a strange, almost amused smile, "I'm Joker. How can I help you and Tamamo-san?"

"My name is Heathcliff. And I want to start a guild with you."

******The Hunter******

**Naruto Uzumaki Current Stats**

**Current Level – 31**

**Skill slots (3 + 3)**

Spear – 650

Martial Arts- 390

Wood Crafting – 540

Cooking – 430

Kleptomancy - 590

Pursuit (Prerequisite: Tracking of 500) – 100

**Notable Traits**

_He cheats. Outrageously. – Kirito_

******The Hunter******

**Author's Note**

OCs are finally introduced in this chapter.

Feel free to start guessing what's going to happen. Bwahaha.

Pictures for Tamamo on profile.


	4. The Manipulator

**The Hunter Chapter 4**

**The Manipulator**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic. **

Random bit of info, someone asked me to try writing a Durarara/Naruto crossover. Knowing that Durarara seemed rather popular amongst many people even though I myself have never seen it, I decided to go and read the first volume of the light novels before watching episode 1 – 4 of the anime. After only a few moments of thinking, I concluded one thing.

If I ever write a Durarara/Naruto crossover, it would only be about 500 words long and consist of nothing but Naruto kicking Izaya off a cliff with some very big rocks or spikes at the bottom before shoving every single member of the cast into an asylum. I'm dead serious, with the exception of Celty, Anri and arguably Shizuo (this one should be on a monastery or on some lonely mountain), every single goddamn one of them belongs in a mental hospital under 24/7 observation.

**Soundtrack List **

Yuyu Matsushita – Trust Me

Final Fantasy XIII – Lightning's Theme

Otome Youkai Zakuro OST – Benibana no Otome Uta

Fort Minor – Remember the Name

******The Hunter******

**Play Yuyu Matsushita – Trust Me**

**24****th**** December 2022**

"Oh my, a guild?" Naruto replied with a bit of humour.

Heathcliff nodded, "A guild. My purpose is to create a guild with the most talented people in SAO for the sole purpose of clearing Aincrad."

"I'm flattered. But I don't see a reason to join a guild. Especially not since I've made my intentions about being a soloer clear, besides I doubt you'll gain any recruits if you have people as infamous as us in the guild." He added sarcastically, referring to his staunch defence of Kirito shortly after the defeat of the first floor's boss and their subsequent isolation from normal players.

Heathcliff swiftly surveyed the people watching him and Joker with varying degrees of intensity, the man in red armour hadn't even noticed that his cup of juice had turned over in the excitement and was slowly staining his pants. Off to the side, a small girl in thick robes and a hood watched with gleaming eyes, waiting for delicious gossip like a piranha waited for flesh, while the giant of a dark skinned man looked on with a curious interest. The brown haired girl stood in a corner with a contemplating expression along with two pink haired ones, both of them watching him, one with childish interest, the other with a fearsome intensity. The only person who seemed not to be paying the conversation any attention was the black haired swordsman clad in a simple black shirt, staring at the wall and swirling his cup of juice with feigned disinterest.

"I think you'll find yourself mistaken about being infamous, as for why, I'm sure that you already know that we are already on the ninth floor. Within the next month or so, I am confident that we will reach the eleventh floor. Do you understand what I am implying?" Heathcliff replied with a steady smile. The pink haired girl beside him barely gave him and the blonde any attention, choosing instead to happily look around the cabin silently with bright amber eyes.

"That you are a beta tester as well." Naruto concluded easily, causing everyone to start slightly at how easy the phrase was uttered, "Almost everybody has had no problems with fighting normal mobs because their algorithms are known and predictable. After the tenth floor, no one will know anything, so they will have to inch forward, bit by bit for safety's sake and the exploration rate will slowly down drastically compared to the first ten floors."

Heathcliff slowly clapped with an admiring smile, "As expected of the White Archer. You don't miss much with those eyes. Though I would also like to add that once the eleventh floor is opened, there will no longer be any reason for beta testers to be discriminated against, because everybody will now be on an even keel; the new players will already have ten floors worth of MMORPG experience and the beta testers will no longer have the edge in knowledge. Anyone who says otherwise is simply trying to stir up trouble. That being said, since you already know the situation, it would only make sense to join a guild where you have support do you not think so?"

"That's good and all, but I still don't see a reason you want **me** to join, there are many others just as, if not more skilled than me. I will always be at the meeting anyway, and I have no problems soloing or going in a group with my friends which I happen to trust." He waved at the gathered group, causing most of them to grin and wave back confidently, "Egil, who I know will always have my back and then some. Kirito is a little sour but his far more dependable than he looks with his sword. Asuna is as sharp with her tongue as she is with her rapier, but there is no other person I would have by my side when I need some firepower. Argo is a little shifty and small, but when you need something done, there's no one better than her."

"Oi!"

"Oh yea, I have Kline too. He's the comedy relief." Naruto replied flatly, hiding a smile as Kline shook a fist at him from behind.

"**OI!"**

"Well, more than some random fellow of the street anyway, much less someone I know is going to leave me to die sooner or later." Kline actually began jumping up and down to show off his enthusiasm before Egil planted a fist atop his skull to stop the man child from embarrassing them any further.

"That's true. But relationships are built over time. You can't expect them to trust them, if you don't let them." Heathcliff replied reasonably, "Furthermore, to be honest, I want to create a place where people who want to learn how to use a bow can easily join us and learn directly from you."

"Learn how to use a bow?" Naruto arched an eyebrow before pointing at a grinning Argo, "I thought I already published the methods and exploits. I don't see why there is a reason for me to personally teach people. I myself wasn't exactly good with a bow to start with."

The pale man almost grinned, "Do you remember what you said when you left the boss clearing group after the first boss? You said, and I quote, '_It'll be there for you ungrateful idiots to copy, assuming any of you are __**skilled**__ enough to use it anyway._'" Heathcliff paused with a half smile, "The keyword here, being **skilled.**"

Naruto scratched the back of his head and wrinkled his nose, showing that he was thinking hard, in a way that most of the females in the room thought was adorable, "Skilled? I'm afraid I don't follow."

"Ahaha, you didn't know Baka-Ruto?"

"Know **what**?" a nonplussed Naruto glared at a laughing Argo.

She gasped and tried to compose herself, "O-Oh right, you and Ki-bou were stuck up that mountain so you wouldn't have seen it. Right after I published how your bow works, everyone, and I mean everyone from the clearing group, and then some, gathered in Urbus and tried to do it. The best **anybody **got was hitting a target, off centre, from 5 meters away. They finally gave up when that Kiba-yarou put a spear through his own head, I don't even want to know how he managed to shoot 180 degrees away from where he was aiming. He was lucky that they were at least smart enough to practice in the safety zone or we'd be less one person on the clearing front." She snorted, "No one has tried since." As soon as the memory of Kibaou's terrified and bulging eyes with a pointy spear lodged in his head returned to her, the small girl collapsed in gales of laughter again, causing the others to begin smiling and giggling as they imagined the same of the admittedly rather unpleasant person.

"As pleasant as that image is, you can now see why I wanted to ask for your help. You can see why having more people that can use archery would help us clear SAO faster do you not?" Heathcliff continued with a charming smile.

As Kirito and Asuna watched their blonde friend, they realized he was clearly getting manipulated into agreeing if the way he shifted his eyes or tapped the table nervously was any indication, Kirito felt a slight sting at the thought that he would go back to being completely alone again since Asuna was almost guaranteed to join if Naruto did. It was a simple no brainer question because of her limitations as a rapier user when it came to levelling alone, unless she could somehow work harder than both of them which was out of the question since he didn't want her to burn herself out. Would Naruto and Asuna leave the house then? It would only make sense since they would now have their own Headquarters... Kirito was so busy thinking that he had not noticed that the cup in his hand had actually been crumpled into a small ball that promptly disappeared the moment its durability ran out.

"Bu-but you'd have problems finding anybody willing enough to learn under me. As I mentioned before, I'm not exactly popular or well liked."

"Again, you'll find that that is not completely true. While is there some dissension about you for being one of the elites so to speak, the White Archer is well respected as one of the clearer's leaders alongside the Black Swordsman and the Flash. Think back to the last few Strategy Meetings. After Diabel's unfortunate passing on the first floor, no one dared to step up and be the leader that organized them until you or Kirito-san did for fear of falling to the same fate as Diabel. The fact that the fight with the second floor's boss went about as well as a train wreck without a proper leader did not inspire any others to do the same." Heathcliff pointed out with an almost smug smile.

******Third Floor Strategy Meeting******

"It's been one hour and all we've done is sit around looking like idiots." Kirito grumbled under his breath, "Like this it won't even matter if we found the boss room. All we're doing is standing around like idiots." And it was true; the entire Town Hall of the third floor that was being used as the Strategy Room was filled to the brim with uncomfortable looking people milling around. All of them were either staring at the walls or their shuffling feet in an attempt to avoid excessive eye contact, just in case they were chosen as the organizer.

Naruto grinned and nudged Kirito, pushing him forwards, causing him to stumble straight into the sights of everyone the room, "Since you're complaining about it, why don't you volunteer?"

The raven haired youth immediately scrambled back into the line with a muttered apology, "Screw you. I don't want to pull attention to myself." He hissed at the grinning blonde.

The grinning blonde held up a closed fist while a hooded Asuna who was standing behind the blonde slapped a palm to her forehead, "Alright, a gamble then. _Jan Ken Pon._ Loser has to be the leader. It's either that, or we stay here until we all die of old age instead of being killed by monsters."

Kirito grinned slightly in amusement, "Alright. You're on, I'm confident about my reflexes you know."

"Jan..."

"Ken..."

"PON!"

Naruto stared at his rock that had lost to Kirito's paper in chagrin, "That's not fair! You cheated, I saw you coming out with a scissors, and you changed halfway! That was cheating."

Kirito gave him a dry look, "I don't want to hear about cheating from someone like you. Besides, my reflexes won't lose to you, yea know." He coughed uncomfortably as he glanced around at the room full of people that were looking at them sourly for being so cheerfully loud despite the gloomy atmosphere, "By the way... Don't you think you should start organizing things, Loser-san?"

Naruto grumbled some rather unsavoury adjectives about Kirito as he stepped forward and climbed up on the stage specially prepared for the unfortunate leader.

Sighing, he gathered his guts and clapped loudly, gaining the attention of everyone in the room, "Alright, enough looking like a bunch of drowned rats." A few people broke out in wry chuckles, "Let's start by organizing ourselves into groups and finding out who we have available for the boss fight." He gestured to both sides of the large room that barely managed to contain nearly 100 players, "Tanks on one side, Sweepers on the other." Without question, everybody began shuffling to each side of the room, recognizing their own roles, Tanks being the ones that specialized in hate keeping skills that usually came with the heavy weapon classes as they were levelled up. Although their damage output wasn't as spectacular as the Sweepers on the other side of the room, their Hate skills allowed them to keep the boss' attention on themselves, absorbing whatever punishment that was dealt out to them, allowing the Sweepers to slowly whittle away at the boss' health without fear.

He himself got down and went to the side of the Tanks when he realized everyone was staring at him as if he was doing something particularly stupid. Then again, that wasn't that rare an occurrence.

"What?" he asked blankly.

"Why are you over there?" someone called out.

"Huh? I'm using a spear, I'm wearing heavy armour, that means I'm a Tank doesn't it? Where else am I supposed to go?" the blonde asked in confusion as he tapped the heavy plate mail on his chest.

Three seconds later, Naruto found himself completely stripped and standing alone in the middle of the room with nothing but an open jaw and a pair of orange briefs to protect his decency, "**WHY?!**" he covered his front with a red face, "I call foul! This is discrimination! It's freaking December you know!? I can feel a goddamn breeze in places that shouldn't even **have** one!"

Asuna, some of the females in the room and a few males began spurting blood thanks to the animesque facial recognition system that exaggerated their expressions.

"Just shut up and shoot!" was the overwhelming response by nearly everybody in the room.

******Fourth Floor Strategy Meeting******

Asuna lost the Jan Ken Pon match and was busy looking over the map when she sighed and called out without even looking behind her, "Naruto, stop trying to sneak in with the Tanks and get back in your spot."

A dejected Naruto, heavily swathed in robes that obscured his every feature grudgingly trudged back into the middle of the room, "This is racism. A guy can't even do what he wants nowadays, what happened to free-"

"Shut up and shoot!" Everyone yelled at him.

******Fifth Floor Strategy Meeting******

Kirito was the leader this time, incidentally he lost because Naruto cheated, and like Asuna, he wasted no time calling out, "Naruto, get your ass back in the middle."

"I **AM** in the middle!" a rather miffed Naruto replied huffily, "Alone... all cold and alone..."

"Shut up and shoot." You could almost taste the exasperated dryness in everybody's united words.

"Oh yes, I'll shoot. I'll shoot your balls off." Naruto mumbled, quietly crying in a corner of the room with a gloomy aura surrounding him.

Hours later, Naruto blinked in surprise as he blew off one tenth of a single HP bar, which was nearly equivalent to three Sweepers worth of damage in one hit, with a spear to the boss' little green apples, "Wow. I can't believe that actually worked... Oh crap."His eyes widened as he realized it might have worked a little too well. The roar- no- squeaking Frog Man that served as the boss for the sixth floor, completely ignored the Tanks and began chasing him with an unholy fury burning in its eyes, "EEEEeeeK!" the blonde screeched like a girl and darted away from a earth shaking punch.

"Note to self, shot to balls equals instant hate." He mumbled as he dodged an overhead axe cleave and continued running around the chamber like a scared rabbit, "Akihiko, goddamn you! Did you **REALLY** have to be so anal retentive about the small details?!" he uselessly cursed the ceiling.

A few days after that boss fight when he started showing a tendency to aim for soft spots, or rather, just that one in particular, Naruto gained another title amongst the clearers.

It happened to be his favourite.

_Joker the Nutcracker._

******The Hunter******

Kirito snorted at the memory while everyone in the room was rolling around in varying degrees of amusement, "Like I keep saying... You are the only person I know that can piss off NPCs for some reason."

Naruto sighed with rolling eyes at everybody else who seemed to be laughing, even the stoic Lightning was trying and miserably failing to contain herself to a light chuckle, "Fine, fine I get your point." The blonde conceded.

Heathcliff smiled.

"But," The smile dropped as Heathcliff waited expectantly, "I'll wait until we reach the eleventh floor. If we experience more trouble than I expected then I will join. And I will only teach the bow to people who I deem worthy. No random idiot of the street."

Heathcliff snapped his fingers in triumph, "Accepted. Tamamo." The pale brown haired man waved for the pink haired girl who had been silent up till now to come closer. Petting her head, he glanced at the blonde who was watching them with an unfathomable expression, "Until you decide, can I ask you to let Tamamo stay with you? She knows how to contact me when you have made up your mind."

"Understood."

The two of them shared a silent conversation and understanding of the unstated exchange.

After the strange man in the robes left, the pink haired girl obediently walked straight up to Naruto and peered up into his crystal blue eyes with her own amber ones before nodding slightly and quietly speaking, "Please take care of me, Joker-san."

"Ah..." Naruto scratched his cheek, uncomfortably stepping back from her decidedly too close inspection, "I-It's alright. Feel free to just mix around I guess. You can have my bed for tonight; I'll just take the hall until we figure something out-urk!" the blonde was shoved out of the way by a shiny eyed Kline who bowed deeply and began stuttering, "I'm Kl-Kline, 22 ye-years old, single and looking for a girlfriend, instead of staying with that pervert how bout you come with m-ack!"

His guild mate knocked him out with by smashing chair to the head and a long suffering sigh of familiarity. It really didn't take a genius to realize that the thuggish faced man probably acted the same way to every pretty girl he came across.

"Ignore this idiot," a chubby man, the one that had knocked out Kline grinned at the blank faced girl and hefted his guild leader onto his shoulders, "I think it's time for us to leave. See yea Naruto, thanks for the party man!"

"Osu! See you on New Year's Day, eh?" the blonde shouted back.

"Hah?! Another meeting like this? If this is how we get to live, I don't mind staying in Aincrad forever, all I need to do is fight monsters and get to eat good food and sleep as long as I want. That's waaay better than a shitty accounting job any day, ahahaha!" the chubby man guffawed heartily.

Naruto grinned and slapped him on the back with an amused grin, knowing that he was simply joking.

All of them had people, things, dreams and hopes waiting for them back in the real world. Even if they left Aincrad sometime in the future, the bonds that they had formed here would not falter.

As the rest of Furinkazan trooped out the door, they waved at the blonde and thanked him for the party, simultaneously apologizing for the unconscious idiot which was slung over the chubby man's shoulder.

Naruto grinned wryly as the last of the Furinkazan members left before clapping loudly, "Why don't the rest of you get to know Tamamo-san and finish up the rest of the food? I'll start cleaning up the dishes."

"Arigato, Kaa-san!"

"Fuck you."

"No thanks, I don't swing that way!"

**Play Final Fantasy XIII – Lightning's Theme**

Rolling his eyes, Naruto entered the small kitchen as the sound of music and chatting started up while a grinning Serah, Argo and Asuna cornered Tamamo in the room that he had just left. He had to chuckle at the look on her face, resembling one of a scared rabbit, a far cry from the earlier one she had worn, one of pure childish interest.

Carefully setting down the load of dishes beside the sink, Naruto put in the maximum capacity allowed and tapped the tap to pull out a menu from which he selected the _Wash _option. As the dishes bgan vibrating in the sink inside a bubble of clear liquid, the blonde settled himself against the counter as he gazed out the small window above the sink and mused to himself that it was certainly more convenient than doing it by hand like he had always done in real life.

"Do you need help?" A quiet voice asked from behind him, startling the blonde a little. Spinning around, he grinned at the pink haired Sergeant, "Not really. It's not done by hand so there's not much trouble. I just have to watch for the end of the cycle and reload it like a real dishwasher."

Lightning hummed noncommittally and settled herself comfortably on one of the wooden chairs by the counter before blinking slightly, "This is really comfortable. The level must be really high, most furniture that me and Serah managed to buy in CoB don't even have half the comfort rating that these do."

The blonde puffed out his chest in pride, "I made them myself, almost every wooden furniture in this house was made by me."

"You picked the Wood Crafting skill early on didn't you? Didn't it put you at a real disadvantage compared to the pure players?" Lightning inquired with her usual stiff and formal tone.

"A little." Naruto admitted with a light nod, "If you compare me to someone like Kirito and Asuna who picked all the combat skills that give them the best stat gains with me who gains nothing from Wood Crafting or Cooking except for my own purposes, then yes you are completely right. But I'm pretty satisfied with the way I'm going so far. Though you could say that they worked out pretty well for me." He finished with a small half smile.

Lightning observed the tall and tanned blonde and if you went by his lean but relaxed face and pose, he was probably barely in his early twenties but you really wouldn't think so just looking at him at him talk and move like an experienced house husband, "Cooking, Wood crafting, washing the dishes, cleaning the house and skilled at fighting." Lightning noted with no small interrogative curiosity and feigned casualness, "You seem to have a pretty wide array of random skills, especially since it looks like you gained them from real life and applied them to SAO rather than the reverse."

"I'm not a delinquent if that's what you're asking. Pure blonde, was born that way." Naruto replied with a grin, "Never got into a fight in my life before SAO either." He turned around and began loading the next set of dishes into the sink with a light hum. When he was done he leaned back on his spot on the counter and stared out the window again, "My parents passed away when I was about 3 years old, I was adopted by a friend of theirs; Tsunade-baa chan, she taught Konoha-ryuu Kyujutsu and that's pretty much where I learnt the basics of archery from."

He chuckled sheepishly while Lightning continued observing him through narrowed eyes, "Though I wasn't very good at it. Too impatient." He waved vaguely, "She had her own grandchildren and they sort of became my siblings. My older brother usually had his head somewhere up in the clouds and Tsunade-baa chan..." He struggled to find an appropriate word before wryly grinning; "Well... she wasn't exactly the best guardian around; drank sake like a fish drank water. So I was basically the only one that kept the house looking like a house and my little sister wasn't exactly the healthiest person around." He unloaded the dishes and began putting in the last set of dishes, "With her drinking too much to properly teach, I took a part time job with the local wood crafter that supplied the bows for our dojo. So I guess you could say I learned a lot of stuff just living life. Nothing special really." He finished with a nonchalant smile at Lightning who was coldly scrutinizing him.

After a moment, she spoke, "Aren't you afraid of me using that information for my own purposes? It's only natural in a place like this and I'll do whatever it takes to make sure my sister and I survive."

The blonde shrugged in an almost carefree manner as he smiled at her with a weird expression, half challenging, half proud of... _her_, it was a very weird feeling especially since she could tell he was completely and utterly sincere, "If it was to save your sister, then I have no complaint but I know you won't use it for your own purposes."

"Why would you say so?" she asked with a tilt of the head.

He stared at her with clear eyes, "Because we're friends aren't we?"

There was almost an oppressive pressure between them as they stared at each other silently, before Lightning began to chuckle lightly and leapt off the wooden stool, "You... I don't know if you are the most cunning bastard around or really just that stupid."

Naruto gave her a foxy grin, "That's up to you to decide isn't it?"

"True." She nodded dryly and patted down her skirt before turning to leave the kitchenette, "I'll go with stupid for now, Nutcracker-san."

This time it was the blonde's turn to laugh as he turned his gaze back to the night sky.

On the way out, Lightning lightly tapped on Asuna's shoulder, who was watching the kitchenette's entrance with something approaching amusement and casually leaned on the wall beside her, "He's almost worse than Heathcliff, I'm beginning to believe that he **allowed **that guy to persuade him rather than the reverse." Lightning observed flatly.

"You are probably right, though he usually has his reasons." Asuna replied with a cheerful smile.

"You don't doubt him? At all?"

In response, the brunette simply watched her with mirthfully glinting eyes.

Lightning held her gaze for a moment before almost shamefully acquiescing, "...You were right about him. He makes you feel... It's almost as if, you want to try your hardest not because you are afraid of him or even because you don't want to disappoint him. Whether you were willing or not, you just don't want to fail him. Period. It's a **very**... disturbing feeling especially since we've essentially only known each other for barely 5 hours but at same time a little relieving."

"Welcome to the club." Was all Asuna said, complete with a little smirk.

******The Hunter******

**Otome Youkai Zakuro OST – Benibaba no Otome Uta**

Naruto rolled out a futon for Tamamo in his room, the bed was being taken by Lightning and Serah, both of which whom were currently bathing, because it was too late to send them back to the CoB, so he was preparing an extra place for Tamamo to sleep for the night, "Here you go." He patted the futon with some sense of achievement, "I had one of Egil's contacts make this for me. You don't really see Futon's in Aincrad but sometimes when I need to feel better, sleeping in one always soothes me, I think you might feel the same too." Like most other items and equipment in Aincrad, the Futon's durability was limited, and went down every time he slept in it, so he tried to use the Futon sparingly since it was pretty hard to gather all the necessary ingredients for the item.

The pink haired girl stared at the futon as if trying to comprehend the item before lifting one finger to point at herself with a cute tilt of the head.

"Yep, it's for you." He grinned happily.

The girl slowly crawled into the futon and began fluffing the thick comforters, a smile spread on her face as she slowly bounced on the down filled mattress.

Ruffling her hair slightly, he slipped his free hand into his pocket and pulled out two blue ribbons before handing them to the curious girl, "Here's something you left in my care a long time ago. I should give them back to you isn't it?"

"What... is it?" she lifted the ribbons to her nose and sniffed them, causing the blonde to chuckle before lifting them out of her hands and tying her hair into two distinct ponytails with the ribbons. The peaks of her new ponytails stood up like pseudo kitsune ears that wriggled around when the girl mutely squirmed around to look at them. Chuckling, the blonde pulled down his interface with his right hand and materialized the mirror that he had gotten when Kayaba Akihiko had made his appearance in front of 10000 players and trapped them in this death game, which he passed to wide eyed girl. As the pink haired girl, now with two pony tails drooping down until they nearly reached her shoulders excitedly stared into the mirror, Naruto spoke, "You can keep that. I don't really need it anymore."

"Thank you. I've never gotten a... gift before." She spoke haltingly as she clutched the mirror to her chest.

Naruto winked, "Then I'll be sure to give you more isn't it? Oh, you might like this as well." He pulled out a small bag that he had been carrying around ever since he had started playing SAO and placed them in the excited girl's open palm, "Open it. I think you might like them." He urged gently.

Her newly found ears twitched as she sniffed the pouch, her amber pupils dilated and she hurriedly tipped the bag over spill a few sheets of deep-fried tofu into her hand which she devoured immediately, savouring the soft sweetness of each sheet, while the blonde watched in amusement.

Dropping the bag which disappeared into little sparks, she immediately shot to the blonde, coming almost face to face with him and silently begged him for more with soulful amber eyes, newly found ears twitching furiously, causing him to start laughing heartily, "That's enough. No more for you, it's already late and too much of those aren't good for you."

She began whining and the blonde damn near folded, fortunately his will was strong and he gave her a stern look, "If you don't go to sleep, you won't get any more tomorrow."

Chastised, the pink haired girl instantly scrambled into her futon and hid under the covers. Standing up, Naruto tapped the wall to bring up the menu and turned off the light before giving the girl, who was feigning sleep, one last smile, "Good night Tamamo. It was good to finally see you again."

One amber eye opened to look at him in questioning curiosity but the blonde had already closed the door with finality. Confused, Tamamo retreated back into her futon and wondered why the blonde seemed to know her, especially since the only person she had ever made contact with in the game was Heathcliff. As she furiously thought about, her half lidded eyes unconsciously began to droop until she fell asleep; dreaming peacefully of being buried in a mountain of delicious deep-fried tofu.

******The Hunter******

A slight thudding sound, repeated every few seconds was what jolted Asuna awake in the middle of the night. Rubbing at her eyes blearily, she threw on a fluffy pink robe and began to feel her way towards the hall in the darkness, wondering if someone was at the door. If there was, she was seriously considering murder. It would be completely justified, Asuna thought to herself as she yawned cutely.

It was only when she accidentally stubbed her toe on the dining table that the brown haired girl recalled that she had just recently learned how see in the dark. Activating _Night Vision _with a muttered curse, the girl made her way through the small cabin with green eyes glowing in the dark that cast everything within her vision with a bright neon green tint when the thuddings stopped, freezing the girl in her steps as her heart hammered out a rhythm in her chest.

She disliked ghosts.

Okay... she really really _hated_ ghosts.

Peeking out the window from behind the curtains, she looked around the porch for any signs of life but failed to find any. She seriously considered grabbing Kirito or Naruto and kick them out of the house to investigate when the thuddings began again with the same consistent rhythm, nearly startling the girl out of her nightie, "Hii..." she was about to call out for her housemates when she saw a flash of white and yellow amongst the trees at the very beginning of the thin trees circling their cabin. Normally, just that alone would have probably sent the girl straight into dream land, but she had seen that cloak flap one too many times to not recognize it as the White Archer's trademark Windwalker's Cloak. Unlike Kirito who had already switched his cloak around a few times, despite always maintaining the same jet black theme, the blonde had refused to part with his for some weird reason.

It was probably a guy thing she muttered to herself, drawing the robe tighter around her to shield her from the cold as she stepped out on to the porch and began slinking her unseen way towards where she could see the blonde doing _something _in the forest. So focused was he, that he didn't even realize that he was being stalked until the brunette was practically looking over his shoulder.

"GYAH!"

"Kyah!"

"Da heck was that for?!" A panting Naruto demanded from his housemate.

"Wha-what are you talking about?! It was your stupid thudding that woke me up!" The equally irate Asuna shouted back.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, the blonde gestured with one elbow. Using her _Night Vision_, Asuna squinted in the direction that he had gestured, not realizing what she was looking at due to her sleepiness until moments later.

A small round target, about the size of a human's head was pinned to a tree, about 40 meters away from where the two of them were sitting on the ground. Littering the ground all around it, embedded into both wood and ground was nearly a whole arsenal of spears. Nearby the blonde, neatly folded under a tree was one last _Black Wood_ bow. She knew that he usually kept one on him at all times and at least another twenty in the house, and she struggled to remember if there was any left on her way out but failed to recall anything in the darkness and sleepiness.

She arched an eyebrow at the blonde, "You're training?" she glanced at the menu, "At 5 a.m. in the morning? What in the world is wrong with you?" she harshly scolded him.

The sheepish blonde shrugged before wiping away the simulated sweat with his right hand when Asuna gasped, his entire red hand was bloody and covered in red scars, that was usually how Aincrad's systems recognized injuries, she could even see the wireframe inside the skin that constituted their bodies within Aincrad, as if all the skin on the palms of his hand had been completely torn away, "How long have you been training?!" She demanded from him angrily, almost incredulously.

**Play Fort Minor – Remember the Name**

"Ev-ever since everyone went to bed." The blonde answered truthfully, completely cowed by the usually placid Asuna's anger, "Don't worry about healing that, it doesn't really affect my aim and I don't really feel the pain."

His words, of course, just pissed her off even more. All he saw was the flash of silver in the moonlight and before he knew it, he had the pointy end of a rapier, barely 3 centimetres away from giving him a third nostril and a very upset and temperamental girl on the other end, "You are going to sit there, and _**STAY **_there, until I come back with some potions."

Naruto was about to argue that, despite the core stat penalties he was currently suffering alongside some really minor pain stings, it wasn't urgent since there were no monsters nearby and that they shouldn't waste potions, but when he saw her brown eyes nearly turn red, he rather quickly reassessed his earlier thoughts and nodded frantically like a good boy, dropping his bow with a loud clunk and held his hands towards the sky.

He sat there in that exact pose, sweating bullets until Asuna came back carrying two small red bottles which were forced down his throat in rapid order. Once the redness had faded away, at rapier point if he might add, the brunette seated herself under a nearby tree and glared at him, "So? Care to tell me what matter of lunacy you were trying to achieve at 5 a.m. in the morning while everyone and their grandmothers are still asleep?"

Warily keeping an eye on the rapier which was still being firmly gripped, Naruto slowly picked up his bow and notched a spear, shooting it down the improvised range as he talked, "It's nothing special. Just good old training," He snorted before firing another spear, and began to pick up speed, "My grandmother would be proud. I never practiced this hard no matter how much she hounded me."

"What are you talking about? You have pretty good aim already don't you?" Asuna glared at him.

Chuckling slightly, Naruto sighted down the shaft and shot another one, "I'm sure you've noticed. In all my fights so far, my aim is only good either when my target isn't moving and even then I can only hit anything accurately as long as they are within 20 meters, if my target is moving, I need to be at least 10 meters from him, or I fire at nearly point blank range if I want any semblance of accuracy at all. That's the reason I work well with Kirito, he lines up my targets for me nearly perfectly with his sword skills."

"What about bosses? You seem to hit those well enough." The brunette pointed out as she watched the blonde shoot spear after spear, each one missing the target miserably, though she noticed his aim starting to get closer and closer to the target.

"It's kinda hard to miss when your target's ass is big enough to fit into Asakusa's Thunder Gate and still have enough target to spare." Naruto replied dryly, "To be perfectly frank, I'm not that skilled, I simply cover it up with more... panache." The blonde grinned cheerfully, causing the brunette to roll her eyes before conceding the point with a reluctant nod, "I can understand that and considering how hard Kirito and I do as well, I don't think I have the right to say anything about you training until 5 a.m. in the morning but you've never done so until so late at night. Why start now?"

That was when she realized that his hands were trembling slightly.

"I'm afraid." He admitted quietly, "Heathcliff asking me to found a guild with him means that I will be taking responsibility for the lives of everyone in the guild and I can't imagine losing anyone of them even though..." his voice wavered, "I know we will." The bow in his hands disintegrated into blue dust and the blonde trudged over for his last replacement, "Sometimes I really admire Kline. There was a lull in the conversation as the blonde took the chance to gather whatever spears were left and stab them into the ground around him before continuing, "Amongst all of us, he acts the goofiest, he may not be the top player or the strongest in terms of skills or stats but he's definitely the strongest in heart, the most honourable and the steadiest one. I'm not sure if I can take the burden that he carries so easily."

Notching more spears, he began firing rapidly again.

"You've never had a problem taking charge of the Strategy Meeting though." Asuna quietly replied, she herself had never really thought of this, she had never even thought about the lives that had been placed in her hands and a slight twinge of guilt entered her heart when she remembered how careless she had been at times, "Why are you even speaking like this? No one says you have to do it. You're stupidly taking a burden that you don't have to take."

One side glance from the blonde was enough to answer her; it was simply in his nature to be stupidly heroic.

"It's different, being picked out of a group of people once in a while and being in complete charge of a group of people you personally know and... lo-are friends with." He replied stoically as he shot another red comet at the target, hitting the tree next to it with enough force to crack its bark.

His hand began turning a raw red again, but he ignored it and urged himself to fire faster, to see further despite the pain. If anything, he used the pain to focus his concentration.

"You speak as though you know for certain that we will join Heathcliff's guild." Asuna commented idly.

"Not for sure, but I predict an 80% chance, give or take." Naruto countered as he fired another shot, "That's why I'm doing this; I also want to teach people how to survive and how to use a bow to clear the game faster. I can't do that if I'm so weak myself." His gathered spears slowly dwindled until he was finally hitting the correct tree, which was starting to look like the surface of the moon with the amount of craters left in it's bark.

"If one good shot can make all the difference in the world when the time comes then I'll keep practicing so that that one shot won't be wasted." He narrowed his eyes, urging his body to focus with more intensity, to fire faster; spears began leaving his bow so fast that it almost seemed like one continuous red stream.

"If one practice shot won't do it. I'll practice ten times. If ten times won't do it, I'll do it a hundred times. If a hundred times won't do it." He narrowed his eyes until they were naught but gleaming slits of ice cold chips.

"Then I'll do it a thousand times."

He fired his last spear.

It hit the target dead center and the tree exploded.

Asuna finally recalled how many bows were left in the house.

None.

******The Hunter******

**Author's Note **

Kiba-yarou – Fang Bastard instead of Kiba-ou (Fang King)

**Knights of the Blood Basic Structure.**

**Ravagers** – While still capable of long range attacks, their forte is in their acrobatic abilities and rapid fire attacks, forgoing the heavier Great Bow's damage dealing capability in exchange for lighter and weaker Short Bows and spears that enables them to harass Boss type mobs with great efficiency. Ravagers boast great movement speed that allows them to get into range and then hit hard and fast to interrupt attacks before it can be finished. To compensate for their lack of attacks, their arrows(spears) are often tipped with poison and other unpleasant things, usually failed attempts at dinner. Seeing a burnt hunk of something black on the business end of a spear is not uncommon, bonus points if a Ravager manages to get it into a monster's mouth. Not suitable against smaller mobs that are just as agile as the Ravagers themselves or crowds.

**Sharpshooters** – Calling Sharpshooters the _demolition teams _of **Sword Art Online **would not be an entirely inaccurate summary_. _Heavy armour coupled with the best spears and the biggest Great Bows results in nigh unmovable archers that slowly pound the toughest bosses into chunky salsa from afar with their high strength statistics. Highly unsuitable against mobs with above average AI that can manoeuvre around their ranged attacks and take advantage of the fact that they can only hit one mob at a time, or enemies that attack in overwhelming numbers.

Special Note: Maximum recorded range recorded for the KoB's Sharpshooter Corps is about 50m as of the twentieth floor. **Joker** currently holds the record for longest effective range at 80m but is known to have accurately hit targets even at 100 metres. Both the Ravagers Corps and the Sharpshooter Corps are under Joker's command.

**Medics** – Highly agile and lightly armoured volunteers placed under the command of **Tamamo**, leader of KoB's Medic Department and a concept introduced by the co-founder of KoB, **Joker**. Instead of doing any damage, these players focus on carrying the lives of their team mates on their small and frail shoulders. Instead of stocking weapons or equipment, their inventories are stuffed full of potions and healing crystals. Medics dart in and out of battle to heal their team mates whenever necessary or possible, a duty that very few volunteers undertake due to the thanklessness and inherent risk of wearing so little armour in exchange for mobility on a battlefield. Bosses are **not** known to uphold the Geneva Conventions and will more often than not _one shot _the Medics due to their low defence rating. Only the most determined and swiftest volunteers are inducted into the Medics Department as a result. However, with the introduction of medics into the dynamics of SAO, death rates have fallen to very low levels, in line with Joker's policies;** No one gets left behind**.

**Asuna**: Leader of KoB's Sweeper Corps. A team of fast and light armoured individuals that charge down onto the front lines with their fast and usually really, really good Damage Dealing capabilities in a blaze of glory with _The Flash_ directly leading the charge, her long curtain of brown hair fanning out like an ephemeral wreath of flames behind her with each swift charge. The Sweeper Corps can and have been known to hit like freight trains and will wreak havoc on the front lines with each roar of charging feet. **Lightning**, leads her own subdivision under **Asuna**, comprising of Support type Sweepers that are more balanced than the others and can switch between roles easily.

**Heathcliff**: Leader of KoB's Tank Corps. The backbone of KoB placed under Heathcliff's command, form a phalanx of heavy armour and a bristling wall of weapons. These hulks can't move very fast but are more than capable of soaking up even the worst punishments with their high defence ratings granted to them by their heavy armour plating and have huge amounts of HP that prevents them from dying in one attack to anything short of a very powerful Boss level attack, and then give it back just as good with their spears, pikes, pole arms and axes. Anything but the most zealous effort will most likely fail to take them down, especially with a dedicated Medic or two in tow.


	5. The Regret

**The Hunter Chapter 5 **

**The Regret**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic. **

******Merry Christmas guys~**

First off though, I want to say that I've been having a lot of trouble with this one, mostly because of how much I like canon, I find myself falling into rehashing it, which was totally unacceptable and so I had to redo it quite a few times _(Thank Kishi, he basically knocked me up the head and told me to that if I wanted to do this, I was going to do it properly)._ That a lot of people seem to be unhappy with how I characterize Asuna and Naruto didn't really help, especially when I ALREADY said that he is going to be someone completely unrelated to the Knuckle Head shinobi we all know and love/hate.

But yeah….. this might not be that good a chapter. Sorry.

******Soundtrack List******

Immediate Music – Catch the Falling Sky

doa – Eiyuu

******The Hunter******

**11****th**** Floor Taft **

She was starting to see a pattern she didn't like at all. It was almost always like this whenever a Boss Room was found. The rounds would be made and everybody who could fight would be encouraged to attend the first strategy meeting.

"I'm telling you, we'll be fine, if we go with your stupid plan, we're going to be spending all night in that tower!" A large bulky man that looked like he was on steroids loomed over a thin, wiry man dressed in simple leather armour. The thin man growled back, "And I'm telling you that if we listen to you, we won't GET to spend the night there because we'll all be dead if we charge into that room in one go! We don't have enough information, so we should be more cautious!"

"There's no need to be SO cautious, all we need to do is watch out for any tricks that the Boss might have." The large beefy man snorted, a member of the recently made Divine Dragon Alliance if she wasn't mistaken, "If anyone dies, it's because they weren't good enough."

"You're just saying that because you want your stupid clan to get the most EXP!"

Well... strategy meeting was a rather generous compliment. As far as it went, the level of confidence currently on display was a far cry from the sombre and gloomy Strategy Meetings that the brown haired girl had seen during the earlier floors. But right now, the experience that the front line clearers had obtained over the past ten floors enabled them to voice their opinions or ideas with gusto... and with that confidence, they would either start arguing or flat out start brawling.

She idly began counting down on her fingers.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

**[Smack!]**

"If you have strength to wail on each other then save it for when we meet the boss!"

Asuna hummed to herself from her seat at the very back of the cramped hall, whoever had intervened had done so by grabbing the two opposing sides' leaders and smashing their faces together.

That meant it was either Naruto or Lightning, but the voice was male, therefore it was the former.

Egil would have used his intimidating size and steely calm to persuade the others whereas Kirito's first move would have been to soothe egos and try to compromise.

She stole a glance over the heads of the gathered players and watched the blonde man pinch the bridge of his nose as he considered the map of the 11th floor, Taft, in front of him, looking decidedly worn out, "There's no helping it... I get that there's no need to be overly cautious but charging in full strength like that is simply asking for an early death." He muttered to the room in general.

When the two men set about trying to argue again, their words were shoved back down their throat by an icy glare from the annoyed blonde who was at least ten years younger than both of them, "The boss will probably have four HP gauges, that hasn't changed since the first floor and I see no reason for it to now, so I want everyone in this room to be divided into four groups with at least 8 tanks and 4 reserve tanks per group to mitigate damage and focus on helping them survive. The first group will enter first and try to determine the Boss's patterns and possible techniques. Dealing damage isn't a priority right now, survival and information is."

As the room in general murmured in assent and began shuffling around, Asuna smiled slightly. For some reason, no one saw fit to question his authority. It was probably the self assured, confident way he held himself with. He didn't ask for it, he didn't expect it and more often then not, he simply took charge because the bickering annoyed him.

Humming quietly, she meandered into a small party that looked relatively inexperienced, pulling down the hood to ensure that she wasn't mobbed.

"Can I join?" she asked quietly.

The leader, a youthful young boy that looked like the typical Japanese gamer swallowed nervously, Asuna figured that this was probably the first time they joined in on a Boss Clearing, "Ye-yeah, sure, we already have enough tanks, but I'm not sure if it's enough."

Asuna smiled kindly as she took a seat next to the smallest player in the group, a small girl who was nearly trembling in her seat, "It'll be alright." She gestured at the other 6 members of the party that were a part of the second group, "Are all of you together?"

"Yeah, we all stay at the Church in the City of Beginnings." The boy smiled gratefully at the small talk, "Oh, I haven't introduced myself have I? I'm Tanaka. Primary Tank." He pointed out the eldest looking boy in the group next to him, "This is Hideyoshi, our Spear wielding Secondary Tank." He pointed at a cheerful, bouncy girl with green hair, "Ueda-san, a thief type Sweeper and," He glanced at the trembling girl, "Rika-san. She's also one of our Tanks."

The boy whose brown hair hung limply over one eye simply grunted, "We're not supposed to be using our real names, Tanaka."

The black haired boy shrugged with a helpless smile, "I don't really see why not, it's kinda stupid to want to role play when everything is going to hell in a hand basket isn't it?"

"Tsk, airhead."

Asuna giggled at their antics, "It's alright. I'm Yuuki." She held out a hand to Tanaka with a bright smile.

Tanaka blushed slightly and shook the offered hand before kneeling in front of the smallest member of their group, the short freckled girl who was trembling beside Asuna, "Rika?" He chewed his lips a little worriedly, "Are you sure you can handle this?" Tanaka asked the freckled girl, "No one can blame you if you went back to the CoB-"

She cut him off with an angry growl and snapped upwards with a heavy war hammer in hand. In real life, a war hammer of this size would have probably crushed Rika under its weight, but in the game, a player's stats governed his strength, allowing the dark haired girl to jab the hammer at Tanaka with a growl, "I can do this Tanaka. Stop patronizing me just because I'm younger than you!"

As she stormed off, Tanaka gave the hooded girl an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry you had to see that. We just recently managed to level up enough to join the clearers, so this is the first time we participated in a Boss Fight."

She shrugged, "its ok, I understand. No one can blame any of you for being on edge."

"I know right..." He sighed, "But Rika doesn't see it that way. She just doesn't want to be a burden to us, so she pushes herself incessantly."

The aloof Hideyoshi grunted again and gestured for the two of them to be quiet, "Joker-sama is speaking again. We'll deal with Rika later."

Hearing Naruto being addressed by –sama was a rather amusing experience, especially since she knew that he was doing this because he was annoyed about missing lunch.

At the front of the hall, Naruto leaned back into his chair, unable to afford showing any doubt. Unlike the first ten floors where they had somewhat reliable information on Floor Bosses, they had none whatsoever on those above the tenth floor. Had he encountered this situation in any other MMORPG, the obvious solution would have been to just attack the boss in droves in order to figure out everything in one go or check the forums. Death only meant an empty HP bar and he and his team would have been free to keep trying as many times as they liked.

Unfortunately, they were in Sword Art Online. The Death Game. He couldn't afford to be easy going, not after being reluctantly shoved into a leadership role once more.

The first group on their own would only be able to push the first health bar or so at best and obtain some general information on boss' methods and techniques; they would have to formulate the rest based on that and slowly push the limits bit by bit. He could not justify sending in more and then count on everyone surviving blind until they managed to obtain more comprehensive information. Fear gripped his heart at the thought of sending more people to their deaths, but his shoulders remained unbowed.

Looking back up, he began elaborating on his orders, "There's no point in trying to plan for what we don't know. So our first aim is to take out the first health bar, more if possible, switching groups as necessary. With that information, we'll send in more teams until the next change comes. Once that happens, we retreat again, adapt to his strengths and weaknesses, and go back in with more teams." His palms landed softly on the table and he slowly stood up, "I understand that this might not be the best idea, so I'm willing to take any other opinion into consideration."

He allowed the hall to fill with a few moments of silence before nodding jerkily, "Then it's decided. We'll keep doing this in progressively with more and more teams each time until we're completely sure it has nothing left up his sleeve, then and only then will we launch a decisive full scale assault and massacre his ass!"

He smiled briefly as the room's occupants roared in agreement, allowing them to settle down a little before continuing in a loud, confident voice, "It'll be slow, but it's the safest way I can think off. At the end of the day, I want everyone to go home! Alright?! I'll even lead one team myself!"

"**Uwwwoh!"**

The blonde sitting at the head of the table grinned faintly, fully aware that the first three teams were the ones that would face the most danger.

He bowed his head and thanked them in his mind. Sitting back down, he glanced aside to where the pink haired woman who stood waiting in an aloof manner apart from everyone else, "Lightning, could you please get everything else organized while I get something to eat before we leave?"

The strict woman stared at him for a moment before nodding and immediately began barking orders to the raucous group while the blonde man got up and entered a separate chamber off the main hall.

"Yo. Good work." The blonde deftly caught an orange coloured fruit that had been thrown towards him from the other side of the room.

Snorting, he hungrily bit into it, savouring the sour and sweet taste of the fruit. It didn't taste good by any stretch of the word but by this point, he couldn't have cared less if it looked and tasted like shit, "I should have called in sick. Not eating for 6 hours qualifies right?" he had been training by himself when the call had come, in his excitement, he had forgotten to bring even a sufficient supply of peanuts for himself.

"Probably. I don't know how everybody else would have chosen to deal with this, but as far as I can tell, this is a good strategy. If this was a First person Shooter game with limited resources and a Death Match type scenario in unknown territory, I would have done the same." The black haired boy slapped Naruto on the back, "Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Uzumaki collapsed into a chair, feeling extremely weary, as the boy left the chamber and slapped a cold compress that he had been keeping just for this occasion on to his forehead, "I hope so."

The door creaked open and Lightning stepped in cautiously. He had noted that the pink haired woman avoided being alone in dark places whenever possible, probably a reminder of her time spent hiding in a crack in the wall.

"Joker. We're ready when you are." The pink haired woman dressed in a white jacket and beige skirt said shortly.

He stood up and slung his bow onto his back, quiver of spears by his side and shot the woman leaning on the doorframe a mirthless smile, "If we survive this, wanna go on a date with me?"

"There's another eighty nine floors to go. Talk to me again when we reach the 101th floor." His assistant of sorts shot back with a wry quirk of the lips at the banter.

This time his smile was actually sincere as the mood lightened somewhat, "Well, at least it wasn't a definite No. When I asked Argo, she actually tried to stab me with a fork."

"I'll have to keep that option in mind, unless you're into that kind of thing. If so, please stay away from me." Lightning replied in a completely deadpan tone.

Naruto chuckled, and then crinkled his nose in confusion, "Hey wait. 101?"

******The Hunter******

**Play ****Immediate Music – Catch the Falling Sky**

The doors slowly swung open with an ominous creak of rusty hinges, allowing a dank and musty smelling air to blow out right into the faces of the entire squad of clearers.

"Tighten up your belt buckle boys." Naruto called out with a grin, "Anyone who wants to die has to get my permission first."

They laughed, they cheered, and they stomped into the darkly lit room in a tight formation, full of confidence.

"Where's the boss?" a heavily armoured Kline murmured quietly as he tried to peer into the darkness, looking for any signs of movement with his Pursuit skill activated.

Naruto suddenly stopped and held up one hand while readying his spear, "Hold, something's ahead of us."

Kline, squinted at the writhing mass of shadows, "That... can't be the boss can it?"

Three individuals slowly stepped out of the darkness. A man that was almost as tall as Egil and equipped with a full set of plate armour hefted two large shields. An extremely large axe was strapped to his back while his companions, a slightly shorter and leaner bald man with beady eyes grinned widely, fingering the hilt of the two swords strapped to his waist. The third person was a woman dressed in a skimpy leather armour, armed with two daggers strapped to her exposed thigh.

Kline waved at the woman with a wide grin, "Yo, Nee-chan... how did you guys get in here?"

Naruto suppressed the urge to face palm, then again, it was not like he could blame them. Being cooped up in a sausage fest where 80% of the population were males usually had that sort of effect on a person's psyche. The man in the knight like armour stepped forward and bellowed a challenge.

"I don't think those are players..." Crystal blue eyes narrowed as Naruto eyed the cursors that floated above the three strangers.

_The Bandits._

Naruto lunged forward and pulled Kline back from being decapitated by a dagger, "Those ARE the BOSSES! SCATTER!"

At the blonde's roared command, the entirety of Group 1 broke formation and moved back out of range. The tanks moved forward with kite shields held high while the Sweepers hung back. Naruto and three other men who knew how to use a bow stepped well back and readied their weapons.

"Groups two to Four hang back and watch for anything out of the ordinary! Be ready to switch in when the First Group is in danger!" Naruto called out with a swift cut of his hand, "Tanks, test their damage and skills! That Big guy has an axe, watch out if he tries to use it..."

"Osu!"

"...KLINE STOP TRYING TO PEAK UP HER SKIRT!"

The red haired man whose hands were making some rather disgusting grasping motions stopped and laughed nervously as he unsheathed a katana, "Hahaha... gomen... gomen."

He rolled his eyes, "Alright! We ready?!"

When he got answering calls, Naruto lifted his bow and fired the first shot at the largest of the three, "GO!"

It felt a little dirty as the wall of steel shields crashed into the three Bosses like a tidal wave with a gut wrenching clash of metal on metal, but the largest of the three held strong, pushing the tanks back with his dual shields while the Swordsman countered the Sweepers with his blades.

His eyebrows wrinkled further as the three strangers retreated with their backs to each other as if in response to his call.

"Damnit, we need to adjust our tactics." Naruto cursed under his breath as he struggled to find a good target, with all the bodies on the field, he couldn't attack at all in fear of hitting a friendly target. Not to mention the three Bosses were huddled up together, every shot that got through failed to barely dent their HP gauges thanks to the heavily armoured Boss, "Tanks, if your weapons aren't working, try to use your body to push them apart from each other then spread out a little! Tackle the bastard if you have to, the large one is protecting his team mates from our attacks!"

The attack pattern so far was simple, but the problem here was that all three of them are Human sized, limiting the Clearers to a max of two parties per Boss to avoid confusion and friendly fire, and the three of them work flawlessly as a team to cover each other. The first and the largest seemed to take on the role of Leader and had the best defence of all three, covering them while the slightly shorter Swordsman with the best damage output of the three fought on even ground with their Sweepers from behind the Leader's shield. The last of the three, the female NPC was fastest of all three of them, darting through rank and file to pinpoint weak points and taking them out with critical hits.

But the Clearers adapted.

"Switch!" Naruto called out commandingly the moment his sharp eyes caught sight of his group's overall HP bar hit the yellow zone, "Group Two and Three take the field. Group Four get ready Group One, rest and heal up.!"

"**Uwooh!" **As one, the shield bearers charged, slamming the metal disks and dazing the Bosses before leaping backwards, allowing fresh players to take their places.

Kline who was trudging back to the doors stopped beside Naruto with furrowed brows, "Naruto? What are you doing? You said we should rest didn't you?"

The blonde who was still firing spears tirelessly every time he found an exposed spot glanced at the red haired man, "It's alright. I can still go on. You guys go ahead."

Slowly but surely, the Bosses' HP gauges began dropping as his group began getting used to their attack patterns and took advantage of it, switching in groups in turns every time the current group's members hit the yellow zone.

"Joker! We just broke through the Second HP gauge; we're working on the third now!"

"We can do this! We can wi-!" Naruto smiled breathlessly and just as he was about to notch another spear to his Yew bow, there was a commotion on the front lines.

"Commander! Watch out! Their patterns are changing!" A voice called out urgently.

Blue eyes widened as the Female NPC darted out, sprinting towards him, body angled low to the ground, making her even harder to hit. Gritting his teeth, he let the notched spear fly. The NPC simply smiled, contrasting with the cold gleam in her eyes as she flipped to the side, allowing the spear to whistle past her harmlessly before executing a spin kick, her heel crashing into Naruto's jaw with extreme force; sending him into the air.

"GAH!"

Before anyone could react, she finished the manoeuvre by leaping into the air, above the blonde and landing on his abdomen feet first, driving the blonde into the ground hard enough to crack the stone tiles before ending the combo by plunging two daggers into his chest. His vision swam, but he was still alert enough to see his Hp bar instantly disappear down to a fleck of red. Dazed, the blonde could hear a few snippets of tinny voices reaching his ears, but his brain failed to make any sense from them as he felt someone grab him roughly and pull him back out of the Boss Chamber.

"Get her away... Commander!"

"The bastard is... POTIONS! How... mobs use ITEMS!?"

"Stop him... heal fully!"

Something cold was pressed into his hands and he opened his eyes uncomprehendingly at the potion bottle. Someone sighed before the person grabbed the potion and force fed the blonde. Slowly his vision solidified, "You feeling better?"

Chuckling wearily, the blonde grabbed the offered bottle of water and groaned in satisfaction as he downed the cool liquid.

"You got careless." Kirito muttered critically at his friend who was sprawled out on the floor.

"Am fine, why in the world did I choose today to forget my peanuts..." Naruto brushed the words off carelessly with a bleary grunt as he forced himself to stand up again but Kirito pushed him back down with a growl, "Enough, you fool. You were supposed to be leading the first group but you insisted on going in with every single group! You've been fighting continuously for the past EIGHT HOURS! You can barely even see straight anymore, or that Boss wouldn't have got you with that simple kick!"

The leader of the first group simply sighed in resignation as he poured the cool liquid all over himself, "What's going on now?"

Kirito huffed; at least the blonde didn't look like he was going to push himself anymore, "They individually seem to have less HP and defence than most of the Bosses we've met so far. In that manner, they are no different from Normal Players, only with tonnes of HP, so that's good... The problem began when we hit the third HP gauge on any one of them; the big guy with the Axe began spamming an AOE by using it to pound the ground to push our group away whenever more than five people surrounds him. The Swordsman is no better, he just starts spinning around like a tornado, so we're effectively limited to at most ten men slowly whittling away at their last HP bar unless we want to risk dog piling him and trying to kill them before they start spamming AOEs again."

Kirito squatted down beside Naruto and continued his assessment of the situation, "That's not all... Just like Normal Players, The Swordsman also began using healing potions on the other two. We managed to keep him busy enough to stop him from fully healing his partners but that's about the limit of what we can do right now. The woman... she doesn't have any AOE's but we don't have many people fast enough to keep up with her when she starts taking riskier manoeuvres instead of staying within shield range. The archers we have simply can't deal with her." He gave the blonde a pointed look, "You are proof of that. The rest were already taken out"

Naruto pulled himself up with a groan, "So we need two of our best tanks to corner him while two or three Sweepers duke it out with the two guys..." He looked up at Kirito with weary eyes, "Can I ask you to take or two other Sweepers and two tanks to deal with him? Keeping him busy is the most important thing. The female has the worst defence of the three, so we just need to get in a few good hits on her."

Kirito looked at him sharply as he began standing up again, "What are you doing?"

"We're so close, I can't stop now." Naruto gritted his teeth and pulled out his last bow before his knees gave way, slumping forwards onto a worried Kirito, "I have an idea, I just... need time."

A new voice joined the conversation, "Don't try to do everything alone-saa, Baka-Ruto." The two boys looked up to see a grinning Argo. Tamamo gently knelt down beside the blonde with wet eyes her eyes as she silently touched the red glowing scar that ran from the blonde's shoulder to hip in a large X.

From behind Naruto and Kirito, Lightning bashed a fist onto both their heads, "Who said that the two of you have to handle everything alone?"

Argo grinned at their dumbfounded looks, "That's right-saa, I can match my speed with hers and distract her. I'll have to leave the rest to you though; my stats are primarily focused for long term speed so I'm not that good with damage dealing."

Kline joined the group, "I may not look it, but I'm pretty fast too, hehehe..." He glanced at the panting blonde with unusual seriousness, "How long do you need?"

"I just need one clear shot." The blonde answered dryly, automatically petting Tamamo's hair without even realizing that he was doing it himself.

Lightning grabbed Kirito by the collar and began dragging him away, "Wai-Where are you taking me?!"

"You and I are going to find Egil or Heathcliff." She answered curtly while Argo and Tamamo followed them, "You have one shot Joker. Don't let us down."

Naruto's lips quirked upwards in a tiny smile, "After hearing you say that, how can I?" He whispered to himself as he opened his menu and materialized a special spear that he saved for this sort of occasion.

The double ended spear's sleek black metal shaft glinted ominously.

******The Hunter******

**Play doa – Eiyuu **

"You ready?" Kirito muttered to the man in red armour.

Heathcliff smiled serenely, "Of course. I'm very happy that I finally get the chance to work with you Kirito-san."

"Save it." Kirito cut him off curtly, there was something about the man that always set him on edge, be it his ridiculously calm facade or almost condescending attitude towards those that fell short of some sort of invisible standard. Shortly after recruiting him for Naruto's wild plan, the man with the greying hair had refused the additional help, citing that only he and Kirito were necessary. According to the older man, "Adding others would simply be a waste of synergy."

As a result, they were fighting the Swordsman without any backup whatsoever, "It's time."

He smiled as he smoothly deflected the first sword blow with his shield and lock the second between his shield and his blade, "I look forward to working together with you."

Kirito hated to say it, but as they worked together; Heathcliff's impenetrable defence complimented his reckless full frontal assault almost perfectly. Usually, whenever he fought, part of his mind was dedicated to keeping himself and those around him safe, but with Heathcliff's shield almost magnetically being attracted to wherever the Boss' sword was going to strike, Kirito found himself euphorically free to fight the way he wanted.

Nothing the Boss tried managed to get through the formidable shield and sword combination that almost seemed to work together independently. The raven haired boy felt himself justified in comparing his partner's stupidly calm and solid defence to that of a mountain, taking the oncoming steam of attacks without even flinching, allowing Kirito to dance around panicked flailing attacks with barely a glance and mow the man in black leather armour down from the sides freely. which brought up the question of exactly why Heathcliff failed to show off his skills before they were reduced to doing this in a two man team. Kirito had to abandon that line of thought as he dodged another scissor cut from the Swordsman.

The moment the Swordsman tried to pull out a potion, a shield or a blade was already there waiting for it, his only options were to attack or die. And at the rate things were going, dying was inevitable. Something that the Boss apparently realized as he started trying to get some distance from the two of them. Again, the two styles complemented each other perfectly. Heathcliff stood calm as Kirito's agility allowed him to bank around the Swordsman and push him towards the waiting wall of steel that was Heathcliff.

Stuck between a sharp rock and a hard place indeed.

"Kirito! Behind you!"

The Black Swordsman whirled around to see the last Boss bearing down on him with her two daggers.

She swung the daggers that were glowed with a bloody crimson aura.

******The Hunter******

Argo growled as her claws blocked the daggers from disembowelling Kirito from behind, the metal claws sparking against the daggers, "Pay attention Kiri-bou!"

Kirito gave a relieved chuckle as the two of them stood back to back, "I owe you one."

"Deal." Argo pushed the woman back with a surge of strength, "The next time you get some juicy information, you come straight to me-saa. Don't die before then!"

Kirito only smirked dryly as he went back to his own fight, even in the midst of a boss battle, Argo was Argo.

Hissing like a pair of angry felines, the two females raced around the Chamber, Argo poured all of her focus and determination to stop her from backstabbing any more of her friends into the rapid flurry of strikes they exchanged. The air around of them was filled with the sound of clashing blades and flashing metal even as they ran laps around everybody else until the NPC swept her feet out from under her with a low kick, "Ngh!" The Boss smiled down at her coldly and was about to finish her off when a blue blur dashed between them, catching the dagger with her own when the usually shy Tamamo actually managed to muster enough anger to growl at the Boss, "You tried to take Naruto-dono away from me! I won't forgive you!"

"Tamamo! Good job! Don't let her go!" the kimono clad girl nodded silently and pushed the Boss away from Argo. Argo herself was suppressing her anger with a cold grin as she picked herself up and rejoined the battle, "Don't think you won just because your legs are longer!"

The two of them raced towards the fleeing NPC, Tamamo keeping up with Argo with ease as they circled around the NPC like two vultures around a carcass. Which was actually exactly what Argo had in mind. Only a little bit less polite.

The two of them lunged forwards, their daggers flashing in the darkly lit chamber but she somehow managed to hold off the two sided flurry of attacks with ease before leaping upwards and kicking both of them away with a roundhouse kick.

"Kyah!"

"Ooof! How is she so fast? That's not possible," Argo muttered to herself through clenched teeth, "Nothing should be faster than me for at least another ten levels."

"Leave this to Kline-sama!"

Everyone froze.

"No, just... No." Argo shook her head as she slowly breathed out, trying and failing to avert her from the... tragedy that was mauling her eyes.

"What are you talking about? I can't run fast if I'm wearing armour right?" Kline smiled brightly; he was either completely unaware of the fact that everyone was staring at his bright red body suit or utterly shameless enough to not let it bother his sensibilities.

Quite suddenly, everyone was thankful that he always wore armour.

"Speed Moooode, Activate! Wahahaha!"

"**PERVERT!"** The female Boss quite literally screeched and ran away from the salivating man whose hands were moving in a very disturbing pattern, all thoughts of killing the two downed girls fled her thoughts as fast as she was fleeing from the insane pervert.

Argo face palmed, "Baka-Ruto... If you don't take them out now, I'm going to kill Kline before you do."

******The Hunter******

Baby blue eyes that were as hard as chips of ice focused on the massive Boss in knight's armour, memorizing each and every variation of its attack pattern until Egil's deep rumbling voice penetrated the hazy veil of her concentration, "Are you ready Lightning? Siegel?"

"I'm always ready."

The quiet man in blue light armour only grinned in response.

A heavy palm landed on her shoulder reassuringly, "It'll be fine."

She took a deep breath and smiled faintly at the incredibly calm man, "Thanks. On the count of three?"

He returned the smile with a large toothy grin, "Three!" and charged forth with a mighty roar. The party that was attending to the largest bandit split into two sides as a dark brown blur rasped through their midst, the edge of Egil's axe making a whistling sound before edge met edge in a massive crack that left both Egil and the Boss jarred and completely open. Lightning and Siegel dashed under Egil's guard from behind, sword already glowing with a blue light, _"Vertical Square!"_

Lightning's blade traced a glowing blue square on the Boss' chest before finishing the combo off with three rapid rapier strikes from Siegel. The two of them instantly danced backwards again, allowing Egil to retake the front, swinging his massive axe like a berserker. Lightning shook her head with a wry smile; Egil was the calmest and gentlest person Lightning had ever met.

Whenever he didn't have an axe in his hand anyway. When it was his turn to fight, the gentle giant invariably transformed into a roaring mad man with a massive hunk of sharpened steel in his hand. And still manage to use it with a grace that surpassed most rapier users. Even now, roaring and salivating under a red haze, Egil's wild blows somehow managed to deflect the Boss' own axe and rend armour plating with no wasted moves, either ignoring or completely unaware of his rapidly dropping health bar.

She snapped up again, "Siegel! Round behind him and attack from there!"

The man nodded and obeyed silently, somersaulted over the Boss, somehow managing to land a few debilitating blows on his eyes with the rapier. Together the three ofthem slowly pushed the Boss into a corner with three pronged attacks. Siegel attacking weak points like the back of the knees while Lightning darted in and out of Egil's crazy swings to slice away at the Boss.

"Eruption!" the Boss' eyes had a crazy gleam in them as he lifted his axe high into the air.

"Oh no you don't, you crazy son of a bitch!" Egil roared in English as he reversed his axe and swung it like a golf club. The sound of the two heavy class weapons meeting with an incredible wrench of steel that caused Lightning to shiver in her boots. Egil's axe shattered but instead of retreating and letting the backup tank take over, the brown skinned man simply threw the pieces of his axe away without a second look and wrapped his arms around the Boss' middle before bending over backwards, furiously slamming the Boss into the ground headfirst.

"A suplex? Really?" Siegel gently murmured with a half smile, "Why didn't we think of that?"

"Bother the suplex, get him while he's down!" Lightning countered as she tried to hack at the growling boss inelegantly, "Egil, get back and calm down!" however her efforts were impeded by the currently unthinking Egil as he pounded the Boss into the ground with his bare hands until a meaty fist slammed into his face with vengeance, throwing him onto the backup tank. The two of them crumpled onto the ground, an unconscious Egil pinning the Divine Dragon Alliance member helplessly to the ground.

"Naruto... whatever you're planning, you better do it quick." Lightning muttered under her breath as she backed away from the Boss that was slowly looming up on her and the lightly armoured Siegel.

"Got it." A weak voice answered from behind her, "_Original Skill: Furious Regret_."

A black blur torpedoed past her head, and slammed straight into the First Boss' head. The spear ripped straight through his head but it didn't stop there. Dragging the Boss behind it, the black blur rocketed forwards until it pierced the Second Boss' head like a watermelon. Exceeding all odds, the spear raged onwards in a straight line and finished off by drilling through the Third Boss' head and digging into the stone wall with a loud 'Chink!'

The three squirming bosses skewered to the wall like a grotesque decoration, trying and failing to pull themselves off the spear.

With every silent second that passed, their HP slowly drained away until nothing was left.

They died, screaming with their faces destroyed.

**[You got the Last Hit.]**

Lightning rounded on the man who was slumped down on the wall behind her, too weak to even stand anymore, "What... was That?!"

"A special... spear." He glanced at where Argo was reaching forward to inspect the twanging Spear embedded into the wall, "Argo, you might not want to touch that." A sheepish Argo instantly pulled back her finger and whistled innocently.

Lightning glanced over at the spear and noted it had two points. Actually, rather than a point, it was probably more accurate to call it a barbed anchor.

"It was a demonic level weapon, the Lance of Regret. I got it from a Boss Drop on the seventh floor's Secret Dungeon," Naruto admitted tiredly, "Its base damage was really low but it had a special onetime only ability. If it pierced something, it can't be pulled out until whatever it's piercing is dead."

"Why didn't you use something like that sooner?" She demanded from the blonde. In response, he simply gestured at the lance. She whirled around just in time to see the Lance of Regret slowly dissolving, "Like I said, it was one time use. Quite literally." The blonde shrugged.

******The Hunter******

"Good job." Asuna smiled as she passed around bottles of water to her utterly wasted party.

Tanaka smiled weakly at the most experienced member of his little group, "Is it always like this?"

"Not always." Asuna conceded, "Usually it's just one very large Main Boss and a few flunkies along for the ride. But then again, this is only the eleventh floor; I can't say that there won't be any more even more complex encounters like this one."

Tanaka slowly nodded, "It... It was really hard, but I wanted to thank you."

"Hum?" Asuna cocked her head with some confusion, "What for?"

"Half way through the boss, I realized that you were holding back, leading us, protecting us instead of fighting the Boss or we would have died a few times over already." Tanaka murmured, "So... thanks."

"It's alright." She was about to say more when she heard sobbing from behind her, "Rika? What's wrong?!"

The freckled girl pushed Asuna way from her and ran off into the maze without a word.

"Oh no..." Tanaka and Hideyoshi groaned as they tried to force themselves to their feet, "We have to help her. She doesn't know her way around here."

Asuna laid a calming hand on their shoulders before grinning widely, "It's alright, and you're both wiped out. I still have enough energy to go look for her. Just leave it to me."

******True Hunter******

The brown haired girl smiled sweetly as she peered into the small crack in the wall, "Found you."

Wet brown eyes looked up before Rika buried her face into her knees again, "How did you find me?"

Asuna smiled gently as she swung herself into the small hole in the wall and took a seat the crying girl, "It's easy if you have the _Pursuit _skill and you know the person's in game name."

The two of them sat silently, Asuna allowing the girl to cry everything out and take the initiative herself when she calmed down again, "I can't do it..." She sniffed again, "I just can't. I really want to help, I don't want to feel useless, but every time I think of fighting, my hands shake and I can't breathe no matter how hard I push myself."

"You're trying too hard." Asuna commented with a small smile, "You're so focused on what you think people expect of you that you sort of blocked yourself from doing what you CAN do."

Rika glared at the slightly older girl, "What would you know?! You're beautiful and capable, what would someone like you know about what a low level newbie like me can do?"

"I DO know." Asuna stated firmly.

"Eh?"

Asuna laid her chin on her knees with a thoughtful expression, "I think it was around the Fifth floor. I wanted to leave this game so badly that all I thought, all I did was train. I forced myself to sleep only two or three hours a day. Every other was used to train, but a... friend of mine sort of uh..." Asuna hesitated. How was she supposed to phrase the fact that Naruto basically knocked her out with a wooden log and dragged her back to the cabin, "Uh... basically he didn't like what I was doing. When I woke up, I was SO angry that I said something that I will never forgive myself for. I said; _what would someone like you know? A gamer nerd like you wouldn't have any friends or tests, or expectations to go back to in the real world, of course you would want to stay here where it's heaven for you. No work, no responsibilities, no bills, no tests, you get to do what you love all day! How can you understand what I want?!"_

Rika gaped at the sadly smiling woman.

"Do you know what he said then?"

She shook her head.

"He didn't say anything, he just smiled. Then he made a bet with me. He said he could find a faster way for me to get out of this game if I listened to him for a week. So for the first three days, I was allowed to train and level as much as I liked the way I had been doing. Then for the next three days, I was forced to sleep, rest and eat properly before devoting the rest of the time to training. At the end of the week, we would compare how many levels I had gained during the first three days and the second three days."

"Did you win?"

Asuna smiled gently, "Is that what you think? If there's one other thing I learned, it's to never bet against him. He always wins. Especially since his dice are usually loaded from the get go." She finished dryly.

Rika sort of shrugged until Asuna pulled the girl into a gentle hug, "Sometimes, if you are too focused on one goal, you lose sight of everything else. All it takes is to stand back once in a while. Grinding yourself into the ground, forcing yourself to meet expectations won't do anyone any good if you're left broken and hollow at the end."

Tanaka's face appeared at the other end of the hole, from where they were sitting, the two girls could see the stoic Hideyoshi was standing a little ways away with a small smile, "She's right." He hefted the shield that he had been using for the entire battle, "You might not be able to fight that well, but you see this shield? It kept me safe countless times. No matter how many times I was hit, it kept me safe, and you were the one that crafted it for me."

Asuna smiled, gently dusting off her trousers by instinct as she watched the three friends make up. Together all three of them made to walk back to the Chambers when Rika asked something that she had been thinking about the entire walk, "Neh, Yuuki-san?"

"Hmmm?"

"You said your friend helped you learn something, who is he? Was he fighting with us?"

The motherly brown haired girl chuckled lightly, "Yeah he was."

******The Hunter******

**Author's Note**

**Do note that neither I nor Kishi have any extensive experience in gaming or strategies. . Please don't scold me too badly if the so called strategies displayed in this work of fiction is about as effective as horse shit in real games. **

**White knighting; **standard internet slang for someone who appears like the term implies, a white knight, to protect someone else from online attacks, usually from a troll. For some reason, people think that they do that to get women. Not entirely sure why trying to be a decent person amounts to something like that.

**Also, the final results are out and Kishi failed two of his last subjects so he can't graduate. On one hand, that means his still in university and fully available to write. On the other hand, he has to get another part time job because his sponsors refused to pay for an extension. Either way, I doubt he can write as often as we'd like. **

**My apologies.**


	6. The Leader

**The Hunter Chapter 6**

**The Leader**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic. **

Yes, this fic gets updated along with True Faith, Unwavering Sky and Caliburn Initiative as a New Year's present to our readers. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year~

**Soundtrack List**

GreeeeN – Love Song

Becky – Emerald

Immediate Music – Catch the Falling Sky

******The Hunter******

**11****th**** Floor Taft **

"We should get going." Lightning finally said after a long lengthy silence. She glanced around the empty Boss Chamber where only a few people were left, mostly because they were too mentally tired to move, "Everyone else already went ahead of us."

One crystalline blue eye slowy opened wearily, "Before we go..." he slowly pulled himself back up, yellow bangs obscured his eyes, "How many people did we lose?"

Argo hurriedly interrupted the rest before it could be answered, "Ju-just a few, we can worry about that tomorrow right guys?" though judging by the grateful looks, no one had wanted to answer his question either.

"I see..." Naruto smiled weakly, "We'll deal with it tomorrow then." That was usually the main reason why the day after ever floor was cleared was considered a holiday, everyone took some time off, resting mentally while others picked up whatever was left behind. He stood up and stretched with a moan, "Even if we don't have bones or flesh in here, stretching like that always feels so good for some reason," As they began walking towards the large open portal deep in the Chamber, Naruto stopped when he realized Kline and Egil wasn't following them, "Oooi, Kline, Egil you coming?"

Kline who was mourning at a certain spot in the wall for some reason turned around at the question.

"Gah! For the love of God, DON'T POINT THAT THING AT ME!"

He glanced downwards at his red skin suit, decidedly confused, "Huh? Point what at you?"

Naruto felt like pulling his eyes out, "It... doesn't matter, just put on some clothes will ya? I can literally feel your chances of getting a girlfriend in this game dwindling every second you stand there in that suit!"

"But it looks cool!"

The longer Kline stood there facing them, the stronger the chills running down his back were, "Whatever, just put on your armour!"

"Alright, alright. What in the world is wrong with you guys?" Kline grumbled to himself as he re-equipped his samurai styled heavy armour.

Naruto peeked out from between his fingers before heaving a relieved sigh, "Well, what are you two still standing there for? Let's get out of here eh?"

"It's alright. I... I wanna stay here a little longer." Kline murmured, his eyes going back to the spot on the wall. The tall giant who was sitting at the furthest away from them in some sort of slump only replied with a quiet grunt.

Naruto made a irritated grunt before moving towards where Kline was standing. He slung one hand around the slightly taller man's neck and pulled him down as he opened a trade window with the red haired man, "Here, I got something for you."

Back where the rest were standing, Lightning furrowed her eyebrows, "What are they whispering about over there?"

"Who knows." Argo murmured in return, leaning forward in a very obvious attempt to eavesdrop.

Kline grasped the triangular piece of cloth like it was the Holy Grail, "Th-th-th-this is? How?"

"When she kicked me I picked her pocket and grabbed whatever I could out of pure habit and reflexes." Naruto admitted with a whisper, "and don't shout so loud. I don't want anyone to know."

Back with Lightning and the rest, Argo cocked her head with a frown, "Why is Kline grovelling to Naruto and calling him Shishou?"

"I don't know... and I dont want to know... That aside, I suddenly have this strange urge to strangle someone. Does anyone else feel it?"

Every female there nodded.

Seeing that Kline was no longer down, the blonde moved towards the wall where Egil was still slumped down on, "Yo, big guy. I need a favour."

The big man slowly looked up, peering up at the blonde with blank eyes, "What is it?"

Naruto opened another trade window with the tall merchant, "I have quite a few items from the Bosses and I can't use any of them. You wanna help me sell them?"

"But... You want someone like-"

"You get a 40% commission on the items and the rest goes to everyone who helped in this Boss fight. It's not very fair that I got all three Last Hits isn't it?" Naruto cut him off with a half smile.

The half dead eyes of his disappeared and Egil practically shot up, full of life once more, "Why is everyone so slow?! Let's get to the next floor!"

Naruto only smiled wryly as he watched the big man spring up the stairs like a child.

"You might as well have given them away for free at that kind of rate." Argo commented.

Naruto chuckled and ruffled the shorter girl's curly hair with his palm, a palm which was viciously pushed away with a squawk from the offended girl, "Probably. But if I did, he would have seen it as me taking pity on him. Better to lose money, than to lose a friend eh?" Naruto remarked, "Well... now that those two idiots feel better now, let's go on shall we?"

They were almost up the stairs when Naruto suddenly stopped again, "Ah, I forgot I left something back there." He began running down the stairs agilely, "You guys go ahead, don't wait up for me!"

As the blonde hit the floor running, Argo couldn't help but sigh helplessly, "In the end he couldn't wait huh?"

The silent up till now Kirito shook his head, "I'll never understand him. He smiles and pushes himself to comfort others no matter how bad he himself feels, but he won't let others help him. At this rate, he's going to die before we get out and it won't be because of the monsters."

"Since you put it that way," the short girl smirked, "Why don't you go and try to make him feel better?"

"I'll pass, thank you very much." Kirito replied, looking vaguely squicked.

"Well... who wants to go then? We all know that he's going to sleep under the Monument again." Lightning muttered.

"Hey, guys! Wait up!" A lithe girl sprinted through the chamber, waving at them with a bright smile with her long brown hair fanning out behind her.

When Asuna finally reached them, she clasped her stomach and panted lightly, "Sorry I'm late, I just met a few new friends and..." she paused and made a cute scrunched up frown, staring at them warily, "Why exactly... is everyone looking at me like that?"

******The Hunter******

**Play GreeeeN – Love Song**

Booted feet crunched on gravel, the sound bouncing throughout the pitch darkness as a figure made his way through the dark streets. The moment he reached the archway that signalled the entrance of the large round field where the Monument of Life stood, torch fires came to life, emitting a fierce orange glow that threw dancing shadows all over the place.

The blonde slowly limped his way to the Monument and laid one hand on the cold granite with a blank face, counting the number of grooves on the face of the granite. He already knew those that passed away by memory and added 33 more names to the list with a quiet sigh.

He turned around and leaned on the stone, savouring the coldness as his knees slowly began to give away until the blonde was sitting on the ground with his eyes closed. He sat there unmoving until the lights slowly dimmed and ultimately burned out when the motion sensors didn't detect any movement after a certain amount of time until another shadow blurred through the gates and hurled itself at the still blonde, causing him to expel all the air in his diaphragm as she sobbed into his startled chest.

"Naruto-dono! Naruto-dono! Naruto-dono!"

The somewhat surprised blonde only dumbly stared at the pink haired girl, "Tamamo? Weren't you with Heathcliff?"

She shook her head violently with her nose still buried in his chest, "I came... soon as possible." Slowly she looked up at him with brimming eyes, "I was worried... you didn't come to new floor. I thought... lost you again." Tamamo still spoke haltingly, but she had gotten better at it. However, whenever she was stressed, old habits seemed to come back.

The taller blonde awkwardly made soothing noises to the crying girl, "Shhh... I'm sorry I made you worried." He flapped his arms around like a bird with a silly smile, "I'm fine see? and I'm here now."

"Unn..."

"And didn't I tell you stop calling me that? It's really awkward."

"Huuu..." She made a pinched expression and shook her head strongly, "Naruto-dono is Naruto-dono."

"I have tofu."

"Ah..." She looked adorably confused, "Then.. then, what should I call you?"

The blonde grinned faintly, "Just Naruto works."

"Muuu..." The pink haired girl suddenly smiled impishly, "So you don't want me to address you so stiffly?"

"Well.. yeah?" Naruto replied warily.

Tamamo abruptly sat up, "Alright. Can I have fried tofu now?"

Naruto smiled weakly and dug around in his inventory, pulling out a small bundle wrapped in oil paper. Tamamo's nose immediately twitched, tears and honorofics instantly forgotten in favour of the sweet smell emanating from the small package. Unwrapping the package, Naruto lifted a sheet of fried tofu and dangled it in front of Tamamo whose eyes slowly waved back and forth in time with the fluttering sheet of tofu.

The blonde chuckled lowly as Tamamo's restraints finally shattered and she pounced on the tofu and stuffed it into her mouth. One the tofu disappeared down her gullet; her eyes gleamed wildly before she snatched the whole package from him and began stuffing her face until not a single brown shred was left.

"Really, you got oil all over your face." Naruto chided the satisfied purring girl gently as he wiped her mouth with his cloak.

"Nuugh... promise me you won't go anywhere?"

"Yeah, I promise. Pinkie promise?" the shorter girl wrapped her pinkie around the offered finger and smiled as she slowly dozing off in his arms. The pink haired girl really calmed down whenever she had her fill of tofu. Ever so slowly, he tried to remove his arm from the girl's grip.

Failing that, the blonde sighed in resignation and shrugged off his cloak, revealing a deep blue sleeveless leather armour and draping it over the sleeping girl.

Tamamo's smile widened as she snuggled deeper into the blonde's white cloak, "Muuu... warm..."

Cricking his sore neck a little, the blonde settled himself onto the uncomfortable ground for the night. The lights had finally just about dimmed and Tamamo's breathing had finally quieted into a tiny snores when yet another shadow propelled itself onto his abdomen, driving all the air from him for the second time that night, **"Gehoh!"**

Given that he had been lying down on the floor, he was quite sure that his back was going to bruise beautifully in the morning.

"No! Naruto don't dieeeee!" The figure grabbed his lapels and began shaking him violently.

By that point, his back bruising was the last of his problems, "Sto-**shake**-p-**shake**-I'm-**shake**-awake-**SLAP!" **

"Waaah! Don't kill yourself!" She began slapping him, all the while shaking him. Tamamo, who had been dislodged from the blonde simply opened one bleary amber eye and watched the two of them sleepily before rolling over and falling asleep again.

Naruto's only thought mid slap was, _'Bastards set me up.' _And he resigned himself to painfully deciphering whatever the brown haired girl was saying amidst her blubbering.

And shakes.

And slaps. Oh and punches too.

Pain was a strange element in Sword Art Online. Given the attempt to make the game as realistic as possible, pain was a necessary component of ensuring players maintained a sense of danger and alertness towards their surroundings. But as far as he could tell, how much pain was felt depended on a few things such as level, stats and the victim's own mental expectations. For example, someone who had just been stabbed through the abdomen by someone of far lower level would only feel barely a twinge but getting the same from a player who was roughly around or higher than him would bring about quite a lot more pain. Though, Naruto noted that there was a threshold that the system seemed unable to bypass, which was more than likely a safety precaution. Mental expectation seemed to play a role as well but throughout his experiments, he still failed to quantify the exact measure.

'If you crash into something you feel pain. If you get cut, you will feel pain.' Common sense. Naruto wondered if no one had told him that human's couldn't fly, would he have been able to?

Suffice to say, the equations got so complicated that the blonde finally gave it up as a bad job.

Coming back to the current situation, Naruto could safely say that being shaken like a ragdoll and then being slapped repeatedly by Asuna, who was a few levels above him, was certainly not a pleasant experience. His HP didn't drop since they were in a safe zone, but that sure as hell didn't stop it from stinging.

**Shake-shake-shake-Slap!**

"Noo! You idiot! Why did you have to do something like that! Everything will be fine if you don't give up!" Asuna half sobbed, half said, "Don't leave us here... Huh?" She stopped shaking Naruto and stared at the blonde who looked like someone had steamrolled him. His face had gone an interesting shade of blue and he had started frothing at the mouth.

He smiled weakly, "Yo."

She dropped him like a rock and leapt a few steps back, "I-I'm SO SORRY! I-I was so worried; they said that you looked so de-depressed and you went some-where to... to... urgh!" Asuna looked up pleadingly, "Anyway, I know it was a bad fight, but you shouldn't let it get you down, but I thought we did really well!"

Rather than looking depressed, the blonde was anything but, in fact, he started laughing loudly the moment he managed to breathe again as he rubbed the back of his head where it had bumped the floor. Mentally, he was making a reminder do something for his so called friends as payback.

Asuna stared at him weirdly, "Y-You're not depressed? Bu-But... they said you looked like you were crying, even Kirito."

Maybe poison? Something that couldn't be remedied so easily with an antidote would be perfect.

He held up his hands in surrender and quirked a half smile, "I'm fine, a little upset, but fine."

Asuna looked distinctly embarrassed and flustered, "Oh."

"Yes, oh." Naruto leaned forward with a teasing smile.

"I'm going to kill Argo. She made it sound like you were going to commit suicide or something." The brown haired girl mumbled to herself as she furiously wiped away her tears with the back of her hands before turning her ire on the blonde, "What are you doing here anyway!? It's already 2 AM in the morning!"

Naruto shrugged and answered carelessly, "I just felt like it. By the time I was done, I was too tired to go home."

The exasperated girl looked like she had a few things to say about that. A few rather impolite things in fact, if the way her cheeks were puffing up and turning red was any indication, in the end she forcibly swallowed whatever she wanted to say and huffed, "You should have told me, do you know how worried I was when you weren't with the rest?"

Asuna shifted until she was sitting beside the blonde with her back to the Monument, "Now what are we going to do? The celebration on the twelfth floor probably ended already and we missed all of it." She complained with a vindictive elbow dig.

"Yeah." Naruto agreed with a wince as his stomach instantly reawakened at the mere mention of food, "I haven't had anything to eat the entire day either." It wasn't that he really needed the nutrition. Given enough will power, one could ignore the hunger for days on an end, but he really disliked the niggling of hunger at the back of his mind that only got stronger with each passing minute.

Under the blonde's confused stare, Asuna began rustling around in her inventory with a small blush before violently thrusting it into his stomach, "Here. I had some leftover."

"Nuh? What is it?" Naruto asked as he undid the wrappings warily to find... a half eaten something.

"Just eat it."

"Is this a sandwich?"

"Yes." She replied curtly.

"Why is it _blue_?"

Asuna began poking his side with her head lowered in embarrassment, "Look, you want it or not!?"

She tried to grab it back from him but the chuckling blonde fended her off, "Alright, alright." The blonde hesitantly put it in his mouth and began to chew under the brown haired girl's expectant stare, "Well? How was it? I mean, I just felt like learning how to cook." She mumbled indistinctly.

"Mmhmm. It's good."

"You don't have to lie. I just started the skill w-when I got a new slot... it's sstill just level 10." Her mumbles got quieter and quieter due to extreme embarrassment, "I tried it myself; it was so bad that I couldn't finish it."

"Yeah. Tastes like crap." Naruto declared with a wide smile. The finger in his side dug into his flesh until it was almost painful.

"Argh! Give it back!" Asuna lunged at him, but the blonde turned around, shielding his food from the flustered girl.

"Meh, you made it with your own hand, that's good enough for me." Despite the awkward combination... soft... sour... fishy... and chewy sandwich, the blonde continued to devour every last bit of sandwich with a grin.

"Hauu..." Asuna buried her face in her hands, refusing to look him in the eye as heat suffused her cheeks.

"Ah... that was good." The blonde leaned back onto the Monument with a satisfied smile as he patted his tummy, the buzzing at the back of his was finally gone, "Now what should we do?" he muttered thoughtfully.

"Huh? About what?"

"The celebration. You wanted to go didn't you?" Naruto commented easily, "There's usually some sort of bon odori styled dance right?"

Asuna almost collapsed with laughter, "Mo-more like a group of idiots gathering around a fire and," She stalled again, giggling madly, "Shaking their bodies, there are a few musicians though, so it isn't that... bad."

"I see... I've never actually been to one, since I usually go straight to bed..." He jumped up with a puff and offered a hand to her with his usual silly grin. Without his usual white long coat, the blonde looked noticeably different in the torch light, "Come on."

Sharper and fiercer if she had to say. The skin tight midnight blue surcoat only served to emphasize that notion as his lean muscles rippled lithely with every swing of his arm.

Asuna's warm brown eyes shifted from staring at the hand warily and him, even if she didn't say it, the way she was looking at him made it very clear exactly what was going on in her head, "Come on... what exactly?"

"We'll dance." Naruto said simply, as if it was a foregone conclusion.

Asuna got up with a worried look and slowly backed away from the blonde, ignoring his hand, "When that boss kicked your face in, she must've kicked really hard. It'll be alright, I'm sure there's a doctor somewhere in this game."

The blonde clearer rolled his eyes and darted forwards grasping her hand and waist. She tried to push him away, but he didn't let that stop him as he started whirling the squawking girl round and round.

"Wha-What are you doing idiot!? A vibrant and upbeat rhythm started playing somewhere outside her ears, rendering her so shocked that she forgot to keep hitting the blonde, "... Is that MUSIC?!"

"Yeah," The blonde paused, "You didn't know?"

"Know what? How do I get it?" Asuna asked, nearly hungrily.

"Sword Art Online lets you upload music from your PC to your NerveGear so you can listen to music while you play, but you can only do it before starting up the game." Naruto remarked easily.

Asuna drooped slightly, "I didn't know about that... so I can't do it anymore?"

"I guess not... I can't transfer it to you either. I mean, I **might** be able do it but I'd need an admin password to your NerveGear and an external interface."

"Oh... Then I guess I can't. I don't have the password since the NerveGear I'm using actually belongs to my brother." the disappointment on her face was almost painful although the blonde wasn't entirely sure if she was thinking about the music or her family, "But how come I can hear it?"

The palm that was holding hers slowly lifted until it was in front of their faces, "As long as we're in physical contact, I can share it with you." The girl simply sighed in resignation and leaned in closer, determined to enjoy this little bit of music, a little bit of modern life that she had almost forgotten in between the pain and the fighting. The blonde's infectious smile as he swirled her around without any regard for decorum just made it harder to resist.

She had no doubt that if someone were to stumble upon the two or rather three of them here, that person would immediately think they were crazy, however as the music seemed to switch into something a lot slower and emotional, she couldn't bring herself to give a damn about that person's opinion anymore.

"I think..." Naruto drew a deep breath as the two of them fell into a haphazard but soothing rhythm that most certainly wouldn't qualify for a dance, "I think I'm going to join Heathcliff."

"Hmmm? Why this all of a sudden?" Asuna leaned in even closer.

"Thirty three people died today... that's why I was here. And out of the four groups, there were a total of nine archers. Only one survived."

"Who?"

"Me." Naruto answered shortly, "I kept thinking... if only I took Heathcliff's offer seriously and trained them, they might have died either way, but at least they would have stood a better chance of going to that celebration." The blonde replied bitterly.

"Your palm is so big." Asuna murmured softly, staring at the large hand that almost covered hers as they swayed together causing the blonde to stare at her, a little perplexed and confused at the sudden change in topic. She gripped it a little tighter, "It's rough too."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Naruto replied with some amusement, the two of them finally settled into a steady pattern, "Is that a bad thing?"

"I guess not," Asuna mumbled, feeling strangely mellow, "Everyone in my family has soft hands. Delicate and manicured, even my brother." She lifted the hand and touched her forehead to it gently, "But it's nice. This roughness, its proof..."

Naruto stared at her strangely, "What does that mean? Proof of what?"

Asuna smiled softly, "Nothing."

They quietly danced silently for a bit longer when Asuna spoke again, "If you want to join Heathcliff, then do as you wish. Nothing I can say right now is going to convince you that it wasn't your fault. If helping to train new archers will let you sleep at night, then I'll stand behind you whenever you need it."

Naruto pulled her a little closer, "Thanks."

"You're welcome... Naruto?"

the blonde had abruptly frozen and began to drastically pale as he literally vibrated in place.

"Na-naruto? What's wrong? GYAAAH! Why are you puking blood?!"

******The Hunter******

**15****th**** Floor Tauban**

Deep breath in… and exhale. One crystal blue eye sighted down the shaft of a spear at an advancing bear, his thumb functioning as a notch on the improvised bow, before letting go, _"Original Skill: Lunar Fang."_

The floating blue bar above the bear's head flickered a moment before sharply decreasing with each spear that pierced its abdomen until it finally emptied out shortly before the bear managed to even get near the blonde standing atop a cliff.

The blonde in question flicked his left hand and pulled down a menu to check the status of his quest, "Oi, you done? I already got all of mine. Two hundred bear asses." He called out to the last member of their party below him.

"Stop being so crude." The only female of the trio grunted in an unfeminine manner as she carefully climbed the rocky incline.

"What do you expect me to call them?" Naruto replied with a smirk, "Butts? Behinds? Posteriors?"

Asuna rolled her eyes as she finally reached the top. Sitting under a tree at the thickest part of the ledge was a snoozing Kirito, having been the first to complete their quest. One black eye lazily opened and the young boy yawned as his two companions approached him, "We done?"

Naruto Uzumaki, the oldest of the trio simply sighed as his bow disintegrated into dust, the last of its durability vanishing like mist. Unlike normal equipment whose durability vanished with each use; his bows were classified as furniture, their durability vanishing consistently as time passed or faster if it took a beating, much like food type items, "Yeah. Just in time too. Let's go get our reward."

Silently, the three tired companions trudged back to a small village located on the 15th floor, Tauban. It had been a long careful day spent on quests and while Asuna and Naruto assisted each other to cover the other's weaknesses, Kirito had been quite happy to do it on his own as usual.

As the three of them separately handed in the quests, Naruto glanced at the menu and blinked, "Crap. I have to go, I promised to show up at Headquarters in 30 minutes." Hurriedly selecting a block of wood from the list, the blonde quickly left without another word.

"I'll go with you." Asuna put in as she picked out a new rapier from the list of reward choices to replace her own ragged one, "Tama-chan is waiting for me as well."

As Kirito watched his two friends hurry off, he sighed and laid back down on the grass outside the elder's home. Unlike the other two, he had chosen to reject Heathcliff's invitation from joining their guild, the newly erected Knights of the Blood. Ever since then, the time they spent together gradually got less and less every day, though the two of them still made a point to spend at least some time with him, which made him feel all the more guilty.

The guild itself had been created shortly after the clearers cleared the 11th floor but Naruto and Tamamo hadn't joined until the 12th and Asuna shortly after.

Although the three of them had yet to encounter anything that they had been unable to handle with their wits, the 11TH Floor Boss had been something of a wakeup call, the twelfth, even more so.

Emboldened by their previous success on the eleventh floor, the exact same tactic had been run by someone else, a Tank player character that he was not familiar with had taken charge of the Clearers against the grotesque Super Slime that was the twelfth floor's Boss.

It had almost been a complete massacre. Pure damage wise, the boss was incredibly weak and had low base HP. It was so easy that the man had gotten over confident and impatient, thinking the strategy too time consuming, which it admittedly was, so he choose to launch a full strike only after three or four switches, committing their entire force into a dead charge. Only the fact that everyone carried teleport crystals by necessity saved them all after the Slime began counter attacking them by intermittently emitting a noxious gas that blinded and poisoned everyone within a 30 metre radius when it only had one last health bar left.

As a consequence, morale fell so low that the blonde housemate of his had stepped up once more, persuading, cajoling and shouting at the Clearers to grow some balls and try again.

The entire challenge had lasted a grand total of 11 hours from first blood to death cry. 11 gruelling hours, in which he had watched the blonde get more and more haggard with each push into the Boss room, persistently putting himself in the lead with each charge.

That victory had ultimately sent a grand total of 58 people to their graves and increasing the number of gouges on the Life Monument by the same number.

He was so stupid, taking on so many responsibilities and burdens for no other reason than to help them, strangers, people who showed him no gratitude like the proverbial _white knight._ Kirito understood the meaning of role play, he had done it often enough. Putting one's self in an environment without noticeable consequences allowed them to be someone different, someone... _more _than the person they had left behind, but this wasn't the same. SAO had consequences, deadly ones, yet the older blonde seemed to be taking it to an extreme anyway, with no noticeable benefit, unless you counted the rather numerous admiring fans he had unintentionally gathered for himself.

Naruto didn't strike him as the type though.

Point in fact, he was so busy helping others, running the guild or finding loopholes to exploit that his own levels and stats fell far short compared to his and Asuna's. Because most of them had more than a month with nothing to do but train during the first floor while they looked for the boss room, most of the clearers were already in the level thirty to forty range despite it only being the fifteenth floor, but as a result, EXP gain rate had slowed down to a crawl even now. Where Asuna was already at a respectable level forty one despite her own responsibilities, the blonde was nearly ten levels lower than her at thirty three. It was almost a miracle that the blonde man was still on the front lines and racking up a kill count with his human sized block of wood in a day that matched and exceeded what most did in a week.

There were times though, when something happened, something that was serious enough to push the blonde enough for the white knight facade to slip. Those were the rare moments when a starkly different Naruto to how he usually appeared would peep out from behind the mask.

A cranky, easily annoyed, stupidly blunt and crafty young man with an inability to keep his fingers out of other people's pockets and a penchant of nibbling stuff whenever he was irritated.

Which was actually quite often now that he thought about it.

The raven haired boy sighed and got up, tussling his hair back as he prepared to throw himself back into solo training once more, there was no time to think about others when he had to worry about himself.

******The Hunter******

**Play ****Becky – Emerald **

"Naruto, wait up! This isn't the way to Headquarters!" Even if they called it Headquarters, the current members of the KoB were simply using the 10th floor's main town as a meeting point until they could save enough money to acquire a suitable building.

The blonde running through the trees halted momentarily and looked back, "It's alright; you can go there first." He glanced at the block of wood he was still carrying with some exasperation, "I just have to get back and get a new set of bows and ammo first. I only have one last set left."

The brown haired girl leapt over a rock and landed agilely beside the blonde, easily keeping up with him through her higher Agility stats, "It's alright. I'll go with you. You know, I remember seeing some metal on that list, why don't you make a bow out of those? They should be more durable isn't it?"

Naruto half smiled and answered as he continued at a decent pace, "Good idea, I had that same thought myself so I tried it out but there were a few problems. For one, my wood crafting skill is designed to carve wood into furniture, but it won't work on metal ores, my carving knife broke before the ore lost even a single durability point. So I asked Egil to help me find the best blacksmith he could for my experiments."

Asuna noted that his blue eyes began to light up the way they always did whenever he was talking about Sword Art Online and she had to smile at his almost childish enthusiasm, "The blacksmith managed change its shape with a hammer and his skill, but even then what came out was completely random and most certainly didn't look like a bow, so we tried another way, namely trying to shape it manually by using a sword. Safe to say, it was a complete waste of time. We couldn't even manually _interact _or carve it into a rod or something to use as a makeshift club. We tried a few other ideas, like splintering rocks to see if we could use the larger shards as shields or armour to take advantage of the fact that it's considered an immortal environmental item and wouldn't take direct damage." He grimaced, "It didn't work. The piece of rock definitely blocked most anything we could throw at it but it was too heavy to move properly and it also disappeared after a count of ten." Naruto seemed to shake himself sheepishly as he realized he had gone on another one of his _'SAO is wonderful'_ rants, "Ultimately, Sword Art emphasizes realism but there ARE limits, but I'm confident that I can find more loopholes given time."

Asuna nodded slowly as they passed through the teleport gates onto the 7th floor.

******The Hunter******

As the two of them approached the meeting place, they found someone with bright pink hair bouncing up to them, a bag in hand, "Naruto-sama! Asuna-chan!"

Asuna smiled brightly and gathered the slightly smaller girl into a hug, "Tamamo! Sorry I'm late."

"It's alright, I just got here too." She held up the bag as the two of them entered the archway with a smiling Naruto in tow, "Look, it's done!"

Asuna pouted, "You should have waited for me, I promised to help you with it!"

"Whoa, wait a second, finish what?" the blonde inquired with a curious look at the bag.

"You get to wait and see like everyone else." Asuna cheerfully rebutted and pulled a smirking Tamamo along with her.

Sighing, the man shifted his white long coat into a more comfortable position followed the two bouncing girls at a slightly more sedate pace until they came to a courtyard where about the thirty or so members of KoB were waiting for them, "Morning Joker-sama! Asuna-sama! Tmamo-sama!"

The blonde waved casually and looked around with a frown, "Heathcliff isn't here?"

All of them shared a doubtful look and shook their heads, causing the blonde to sigh and step up to start the day's training while his two friends looked on. Asuna who was standing with Tamamo and rummaging through the bag took the time to glance at the blonde's tall profile authoritatively matching up teams for training; all of them would be separated into their specialties for practice. That was the way their days usually went, first they had practice for a three hours of for mock battles and duels or simple archery practice.

Many considered that the mock battles and duels redundant since they could gain experience on the field anyway, but the blonde was adamant about them learning how to efficiently use their skills under pressure, especially when against another player. After that, they would disperse, taking a rest for lunch. Once their stamina was replenished, Naruto would once more separate the twenty four members into roaming squads of three to be sent into the field to train and search for the Boss Room at the same time.

When the guild had first been established, the leadership ranks had been determined through a simple duel styled tournament with Asuna emerging victorious amongst the Sweepers.

The blonde... depending on your perspective... had won in his own inimical style. To be precise, on the day before the match, he pretty much _poisoned _every single one of his competitors, only instead of using actual poison; he had thrown together a cocktail of the most disgusting things he could get his hands on. Suffice to say, trying to focus on dodging flying spears was a rather interesting experience when your brain was trying to tell you that you desperately needed to find a toilet.

The lack of toilets in Sword Art Online, and the required anatomy to make use of aforementioned toilets could not have been more obvious that day.

Directly after he had beaten every single one of his opponents into the ground with a polite smile, he turned around and declared himself forfeit because he cheated for no discernible reason.

So technically, Naruto was but a simple member of KoB, he held no rank unlike Asuna or Tamamo and there really wasn't a real legitimate reason to obey his orders, yet every single one of their members looked up and deferred to him whenever Heathcliff was not available. Which was almost all the time

At first he had resisted the idea, but inevitably, he was unable to bear watching everybody mill around like lost children and took charge with a confidence that inspired everybody.

In a way, the blonde was the true Leader of the Knights of the Blood.

"Asuna-chan?" the sound of her name being called caused her to look back down at the pink haired girl who was staring at her inquisitively. She laughed awkwardly, "Sorry, I must have been spacing out."

The smaller girl's pseudo ears wriggled a little but she shrugged it off before pointing at the bag, "We're ready. We should change before we give them their presents."

Asuna smiled and wound her arm around Tamamo's, "Alright, let's go and dazzle the boys." She said cheerfully.

Meanwhile, at the make shift shooting range that Naruto had built by himself, the blonde was currently instructing a three new archer recruits.

He stared at the three young boys, "You are here because you want to learn how to use a bow and I am here because I agreed to help you learn. But before we start, there's one thing I want you to memorize until you can recite it in your sleep." He drew a deep breath and allowed a fierce expression onto his face as he gestured at the pile of practice bows beside him, "These bows and the skills you get from me are only used to protect something important to you. If I find out that you used it for something else, mark my words. _I. Will. Hunt. You. Down. Myself._ Do I make myself clear?"

The three shaken and pale boys nodded frantically.

"Naruto nodded in satisfaction, "Very well, everyone pick a bow that feels right."

As the three of them hurried to grab a bow while avoiding the penetrating blue stare as much as possible, Naruto began pacing behind them, "I don't care WHAT you've heard about archery or guns before but you will not be good about this off the bat unless you have had prior experience. There's no system assist for this function either, so don't worry about hitting your targets yet. Just get a feel for the spear's trajectory. This might be Sword Art Online, but wind resistance and gravity still play a major role. Your arm and shoulder strength here does not matter like it would in real life, only your Strength stat and unlike modern day bows, we don't have a nocking point, we do not have a wedge, we do not have a arrow rest and we do not have sights. What we DO have is ourselves. Here, a proper pose will be the difference between you shooting a target and you shooting your foot off."

He paused and adjusted a young boy's grip on his bow, straightening the boy's shoulders as he did so, "Aim a little higher and adjust accordingly. When you can hit at least 6 out of 10 of your marks here consistently, we'll move to the sixth floor where the wind is stronger for you to get a feel. Once you get a feel for that, we might even be able to start shooting while moving by the end of this week." He winked at the seven youths, all of them male, "It looks really cool ya know. Good for those of you with girlfriends to show off to eh?"

All of them snickered and elbowed each other before saluting him with beaming grins.

"Naruto!"

The blonde threw a side long glance over his shoulder, "Is something wrong with the Sweepers?"

Asuna smiled faintly, "No, but I doubt their going to like me anytime soon."

"Asuna-chan turned them into target practice for the other Archers." Tamamo bluntly explained.

She puffed up her cheeks in defiance, "It'll help them increase their reflexes."

Naruto chuckled heartily, "What did they do this time?"

"They peeped on her while she was changing."

Naruto sighed, "I don't mind if they have fun while training, in fact, I encourage it, but some things aren't meant to be played with. Write a list of their names and pass them to me later so that I can reprimand them." He turned to the group of distinctly overwhelmed boys, more than one of them were drooling at the pink haired Tamamo who was dressed in an elaborate, white and red custom kimono and Asuna who was in a sharp looking red and white costume, "Boys, these two beautiful ladies are Tamamo-san and Asuna-san. Asuna-san is in command of the Sweepers. Tamamo-san on the other hand is in charge of Supplies and Support, she's also Heathcliff's secretary. If you need new armour or weapons, you can put in a request with her, and she'll see if there's anything we can give you from the drops that our guild gathers."

Then again, he had noticed that Tamamo spent far more time with him than with Heathcliff. He assumed it was mostly because he always had a bag of her favourite fried tofu with him.

The three of them surged forward with shining eyes, crowding around a noticeably uncomfortable looking Tamamo and Asuna, "Uwoooh! I can believe we get to talk to Tamamo-sama and Asuna-sama so soon!"

Asuna shot the amused looking blonde a pleading look that he ignored completely in favour of chortling into his hand. A somewhat more composed Tamamo on the other hand brushed them off and stepped back with a gentle but firm glare, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I already belong to Naruto-sama." The pink haired girl said with a completely straight face.

Naruto pursed his lip and face palmed while his students' jaws collectively dropped, "Tamamo?"

"Hai, Goshujin-sama?"

"Would you mind not introducing yourself to everybody in such a way that will instantly cause unfortunate misunderstandings?"

"I do not understand, Goshujin-sama." She smirked, and leaned into his side, "You asked me to not be so formal with you. I was simply doing what you asked me to do." For some reason, Naruto got the impression that his standing in the eyes of his students had fallen significantly if the way they were looking at him with jealousy was any indication.

He didn't pull his arm out of her grasp, knowing full well that the over affectionate girl would simply grab it again without any embarrassment whatsoever, "Unfortunate misunderstandings aside, is there something we can do for you?"

"Let's go meet up with the rest first, it's almost time for lunch anyway." Tamamo suggested with a bright cheerful grin.

Shrugging, the blonde decided to simply allow Tamamo to drag him with the two mischievously grinning girls.

Once everyone was gathered in the courtyard again, panting and refreshing themselves; Naruto stood up with a flourish, "I do believe Asuna and Tamamo have something to say." He bowed gracefully; fully aware that he was making it a lot more dramatic than necessary. Mostly as a way to get back at the two girls since they obviously gearing up for something big.

Tamamo glanced at Asuna and the two of them nodded before pulling out a few pieces of cloth with wide grins, "Voila! We made new uniforms for everybody!"

While the thirty or so members began to gather around them with loud excited chattering, the blonde contented himself with leaning against the castle wall, under the shade with a bottle of water in hand, observing the excited group with a small smile until the two perpetrators detached themselves from the group and head to him with wide grins.

Naruto leaned forward to inspect Asuna's dress, unaware of her fidgeting at his closeness; they were of pretty high quality material and consisted of a white coat with stylized crimson pieces that accentuated the uniform, "I didn't know we had a uniform. Was this what you and Tamamo were working on? They're very well made." Naruto commented with an approving nod that caused the two girls to flush brightly.

"Yeah, the Knights of the Blood has been around for a while now, so we thought we should all have something to distinguish our members apart from the other clearers." Asuna explained with feigned casualness while Tamamo leaned forward with bright hopeful eyes, "Asuna-chan was the ones to design these, because I wasn't very good at designs, but I sewed most of them with Asuna-chan's help. Did I do well Goshujin-sama?"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched minutely at her proximity but he hid it with a wide smile, "Yeah, you did very well Tama-chan." He leaned forward to gently peck her forehead, "They look very nice, I'm proud of you."

She slowly flushed from tip to toe, her floppy ribbon somehow fluttering vigorously, before burying her face in her own red and white set before dashing off with a squeal that sounded remarkably like a kettle coming to a boil.

"You're doing it again." Asuna commented as she leaned on the wall beside him.

"Doing what?"

"You always get uncomfortable whenever she gets too close, but you force yourself to ignore it and make her as happy as possible." She pointed out conversationally. She didn't like to admit it, but she had more than enough experience observing people. Especially with how dry her school life had been with everybody avoiding the aloof and high class Asuna-san.

The blonde neither denied or agreed with her insinuation, simply giving her a smirk, leading her to believe that her guess had been more or less accurate, "So why red and white?"

She shrugged, "Why not?"

Asuna glanced at the blonde's near iconic white long coat with midnight blue undersides and thought off Heathcliff's blood red robe before flouncing off, leaving a nonplussed blonde behind. Shrugging, he decided to start doing some paperwork, supplies for the guild were running low and he doubted that Heathcliff would have noticed. Resigning himself to a wasted afternoon, the blonde began walking in the direction of the inn with a quiet little hum when he was accosted from the side.

"Jo-Joker-sama. Good afternoon." The lanky man bowed politely as the two men walked together.

"Kanno." Naruto smiled knowingly, causing the man to flush in embarrassment, "I hope you and Otome are well?"

The man chuckled with a incredibly wide grin, "I proposed to her last night."

Naruto winked, "Let me know when is the wedding yeah?"

His companion puffed up his chest, "Of course." then he came to a stop, playing with his cravat nervously, "If we ever get back to real life, would you mind being the best man? You were the one that advised and gave me the courage to propose."

Naruto slapped his back encouragingly, "Of course. Let's all go back together eh?"

******The Hunter******

**Play Immediate Music – Catch the Falling Sky**

The door slammed open as a pink haired woman stormed into the room he had taken as his office, jolting Naruto into looking up from his papers with a raised eyebrow, "Deep breaths, Lightning."

His assistant simply growled at his attempt at levity and slammed a piece of paper down onto the table with, "What is the meaning of this?"

The blonde peered down at the paper before speaking evenly, "Serah wanted to join the front lines. So I allowed her."

The agitated Lightning nearly growled at her superior, "Why wasn't I notified?"

"Because she knew that you would react exactly in this way," the blonde pointed out calmly, "Which was why she told me not to let you know until she was officially accepted."

Lightning slammed a fist down on the table as she glared at the blonde, "I refuse to accept this, she's still a child!" Naruto merely stared at the woman over his steepled fingers. He didn't like doing this to a friend, but he failed to see another option other than to be coldly logical, "By your definition of child, a little less than half of not just everybody on the frontlines but every single player in this death trap should be restricted to the City of Beginnings. In fact, she, Tamamo and Asuna are the same age. Do you consider either of them to be incapable of fighting on the front lines along with you and me?" Naruto's voice slowly lowered, "Even if that was not the case, what if we as the adults fail? With only those untrained and inexperienced children that were locked up in the CoB to carry on our banner."

Her voice hitched, "She's not mature enough know what she's getting into, Naruto... please don't let this happen."

"I'm completely willing to let her leave if you can persuade her to quit. Talk to her, listen to her words..."

The pink haired girl cut him off with another growl, "This is Serah we're talking about, you know how stubborn she is right? Nothing I say is going to change her mind."

Naruto smiled thinly, "Then I'd say that she resembles you in more ways than one."

When Lightning refused to be pacified, the blonde sighed and clasped his fingers tightly, "Tell you what; I'll put her under your command, you can watch over her then."

When Lightning was about to agree, the blonde cut in yet again, "But as a leader, I expect you treat her the same as you do everybody else. No easier tasks to stop her from working too hard, and no working her too hard to make her quit. Understood?"

Lightning shut her mouth reluctantly and nodded.

Spinning around, she walked over to the door before hesitating with one hand on the doorknob, "If something happens to her, I will hate you for the rest of my life." She quietly said over her shoulder.

Naruto quietly slumped into his chair as the woman slammed the door behind her, "I know." He whispered lowly to himself before looking up at the dark wood ceiling tiredly until someone knocked at the door, prompting Naruto to call out, "Come in."

A man decked in full crimson robes stepped in with a grace rarely seen, "I'm surprised you allowed her to question your decisions," The man gently spoke with a calm demeanour, "Even more so when you relented. Her sister is a very talented fighter that would have bloomed beautifully outside of Lightning's shadow."

"And I'm surprised that you finally showed up." The blonde retorted as he returned to his tedious work.

The other man smiled blandly, "Also, do forgive my absences; I've had much to do... recruitment and all that, it's my goal to make a guild that contains the people that have the best potential of achieving a level far beyond what one could call human." The man waved with a vague smile as he took the seat opposite of the blonde, "... Don't you find it interesting? Everybody in trapped in this game used to be nothing but simple modern people. Stuck into a rut of boring, daily, technologically assisted life, and yet you see some of these people rising up to the occasion, fighting on the front lines with such vigour and passion, unearthing a hidden talent to overcome and achieve a level of ability and focus that is otherwise impossible in reality."

"And what of those without talent? Will you punish them?"

Heathcliff smiled serenely, "Punish? I would never do something so crude although I'd have to ask you to stop using part of our budget to requisition food and clothes for those who are too scared of even stepping out of the City of Beginnings."

"I didn't choose to be a leader; however, I understand that sometimes I need to make hard decisions." He returned the man's stare with a glare, "That does not mean that I won't do everything in my power to ensure that I don't have to make those sacrifices in the first place and caring for those who look up to me for help rather than disregard the helpless." Naruto stated flatly.

The man in the red robe shrugged, "You misunderstand me. I already know they are incapable, so I simply do not have any expectations for them and in return they should not expect me to help. Besides, it's a general rule that those whose talents have blossomed under pressure and conflicts that would have otherwise been buried and wasted under a mundane life will survive Sword Art Online. And those that ultimately don't... are culled by _circumstances_. I only ask that you do not prolong the inevitable. You can understand what I'm saying don't you?"

The pen in Naruto's hand snapped, yet his face remained as cold as stone, "I wouldn't know. I was never a talented person to begin with. Everything I have, I achieved through hard work, unlike my brother." He slowly stood up and walked to the window, looking out on to the courtyard where the rest of the Knights of the Blood was practicing, mostly to quell the urge to throw a spear into Heathcliff's disgustingly calm expression, internally he wondered how they managed to reach this topic, "I guess normal people like me simply can't understand things the way geniuses like you and him can, now... if there's nothing else?"

The brown haired man simply smiled and made to leave.

"Oh, and Heathcliff?"

"Yes, Joker?" Heathcliff responded without turning back.

The two men stood with their backs to each other, "I don't know why you are helping Akihiko, but when you meet him; do tell him that I look forward to killing him." Naruto continued coolly, "Also, you might as well stop trying to persuade me, I'm only going along with this insanity as long as Nee-san needs it."

The man's smile widened, "Ah yes. Your older sister. She was a victim of a hit and run that left her brain dead wasn't it?"

"Leave." He couldn't see Joker's expression, but the tone was ice cold.

When the door finally closed and he could hear the sound of Heathcliff's footsteps slowly receeding, he allowed his forehead to make contact with the cold glass, "What would you have done Nee-san?" he whispered quietly.

A head of brown hair poked in through the door, "You alright? I saw Lightning stomping off with this massive scowl."

Naruto barely managed to force a half hearted smile as he took his seat again, "Technically she's always scowling."

"You didn't answer my question." Asuna pointed out with a grin, already more than used to the blonde evading her questions.

Naruto waved it off nonchalantly, "She's fine. Just a little upset that I allowed Serah into the guild."

Asuna's mouth opened in the shape of an 'O' as she immediately understood the situation, knowing Lightning's overall attitude to Serah. The younger of the two sisters had taken to talking to Asuna regularly, secretly confiding in Asuna how stifled and useless she felt just sitting at home while her friends went out and fought for their freedom daily. In a way, this was probably her fault since she was the one to encourage Serah to at least try, giving her a few tips to handle a weapon.

Oops.

The brown haired girl gave the blonde man a slightly guilty look, "And you? Are you hurt?"

He tapped his chest, over the heart with one finger and mock sighed, "Right here. Make me better?"

"Yep, you're totally fine." Asuna commented dryly.

Naruto made a deliberately tragic look, "Ah, no one cares about poor old Naruto nowadays."

Asuna rolled her eyes and made to leave when someone ran in, bumping into her roughly and sending her to the ground with a yelp, "So-sorry Asuna-dono!"

"I-It's alright," Asuna shook her head a little to clear the fuzziness as the boy helped her up, what's wrong? Why are you in such a hurry?"

The boy who couldn't seem to shut his mouth as he stared at Asuna, his idol and vibrated excitedly at being able to talk to her directly. Of the two KoB members in the room the blonde one only grinned in amusement, while his friend growled but otherwise stayed silent as the boy began to babble, chest puffed up with self importance, "My guild found the Sixteenth Floor's Boss room. My guild mates are already making the rounds and letting everyone else know."

A hush fell and Naruto glanced down at the paper he had been working on before Lightning had interrupted him. It was a list of supplies that he had wanted to buy from Egil's guild for the KoB. Rubbing the words out, he doubled the amounts listed and finished off the note with his signature before holding it out, "Asuna, can you take this order to the Merchant's Guild? We're going to need a lot more supplies."

Walking over to him, the girl grabbed the piece of paper and glanced at it.

Then she blinked and brought it up closer to her eyes before giving the innocently whistling blonde a dry look, "Mind explaining why you put ten bags of peanuts on the guild's account?"

******The Hunter******

Heathcliff could only stare, dumbfounded at two of the stronger members of the Clearers who were lugging a wagon filled with entire cartons filled with potions, antidotes and various medical crystals directly outside the Main door of the Boss Room. Closing his eyes as they began unloading, the older man approached the blonde who was watching them take stock of the items and coughed politely with something approaching disbelief, "Joker, do you have a moment?"

"Humm? What is it? I'm a little busy."

Heathcliff suppressed a sigh as he gazed at the rows of medical cartons. It was about as subtle as a hammer. Sadly enough, considering exactly who he was speaking too... it wasn't really all that unexpected, "Some people... might consider this cheating." He found it incredibly hard to keep his tone conversationally bland for some reason.

"Yeah well, some people can kiss my ass." Naruto smirked, not even bothering to grace the man with a glance, "Besides, no one said anything about only being able to use what is limited to our inventories." Naruto bowed with a mocking smile, "Now, if you'll excuse me."

As he pushed open the door with a massive 'clang!' with both hands, he felt his friends step up beside him. Together, they shared a glance and nodded as they simultaneously armed themselves with their preferred weapons.

"Those who cry, those who wait, those who watch," He murmured to himself, his words slowly getting louder and louder, "Those who fight, those who bleed and those who triumph." He lifted his spear in defiance and said softly, "Do not falter."

The responding roar was anything but soft.

******The Hunter******

I could hear the Naruto/Asuna shippers squealing all the way down in Adelaide. *Wink*

Speaking of shippers, I figured I'd visit the pure Naruto and Harry Potter fandoms out of nostalgia and boredom.

Ye gods above and below, save me for I've lost my faith in humanity.

I wish I got brain bleach as a Christmas present. That's what I get for not listening to Kur0. I have to give it to them though; yaoi shippers are definitely creative if nothing else. The myriad of ways they can play with just one hole astounds me. How else can one explain why the first five or so pages of those two fandoms are filled with almost nothing but sword fights.

Post edit note from Kur0: Ignore the above; Kishi always gets snippy when he's in a bad mood. When he's REALLY pissed off though, I seriously swear the guy's like a walking Therapy no Jutsu in reverse. Once, one of those tough rugby guys from school knocked his science project over and laughed at the skinny 5 foot tall Asian.

By the time Kishi was done with him, the dude started wearing pink flowers to school.

Oh and did I mention that he's completely smitten with Kana Hanazawa's voice acting? XDDDD *Cruel sisterly laugh*


	7. The Secret

**The Hunter Chapter 7**

**The Secret**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic.**

Someone asked if I'll continue The Hunter till Alicization. I'll be honest, I've had plans of course, but mostly I'm just worried that most people won't accept an OC. We'll see how it goes, if it's good enough that people don't care about the fact that my Naruto here is basically an OC, then yeah, I'll go ahead and write it.

Amusingly enough, Kishi noted that when we began writing Hunter, there were at least three or four SAOXNaruto crossovers with an actual ninja Naruto. Now he can only find two, neither of which happen to be any of the original four. As far as I'm concerned, those that have a time to complain about the lack of real ninja Naruto's in this category might as well go and write one themselves.

Pictures on profile as usual. We welcome any assistance with those of course, and thanks to 12ose for all the pictures he already helped gather.

**Soundtrack List**

Two Steps from Hell – Black Blade

Stephanie – Friends

Yu Takahashi – Genjitsu to iu Na no Kaibutsu to Takatau Monotachi

Ai Kawashima – Kimi no Koe

Supercell - Kare

******The Hunter******

**16th Floor Senatil Boss Room**

**Play Two Steps from Hell – Black Blade**

"What in the world is that?" Siegfried breathed out quietly as they beheld the monstrosity standing before them. The slight fear in his question caused several members to shake slightly, rarely did the calm and composed man in blue armour ever show any outward signs and his emotions and the quaver in his voice shook them more than the Boss itself.

The lionesque monster shook its thick shaggy mane and roared ferociously with its vaguely humanoid face as it struggled against the large heavy chains that bound it to the far side of the chamber. Rearing back angrily, the monster flapped its humongous bat like wings, sending gusts that staggered the group of clearers easily. Three large tails tipped with a poisonous looking barb, each of them as long as the lion's body lazily flicked in the air as a large title card appeared over the Boss.

_Neiquel the Manticore Lord. _

Two other manticores, slightly smaller in stature but no less dangerous looking melded out of the shadows that covered the far side of the chamber and roared challengingly as they guarded the Boss' flanks.

"Groups 1, 2 and 3 will engage the Boss first," Naruto ordered, standing form against the buffeting winds, "1 and 3 will hold off the sub Bosses while Group 2 will directly combat the Boss. Adjust as you see fit unless I say otherwise. Watch out for their tails, fangs and mouths. Breath attacks are highly probable and if I remember my mythology right, they can use those barbs on their tails as projectiles as well. The main Boss is chained but I wouldn't depend on it too much."

Slowly, the three groups began to fan out and edge closer towards their respective targets.

It was almost tradition as the three Groups stopped just short of the waiting Manticores, waiting for a signal from their support. The moment the first Bow released its burden with a twang, the clearers charged with a roar while those who weren't already on the front lines observed and analysed their opponent's every movement.

"The Boss attacks somewhat randomly, so we'll have to watch out for that but the little ones are easier aren't they?" someone commented quietly.

"The tail attacks the same way, the first tail will whip out, followed by the second while the third sweeps them up into the air. From then, whatever Neiquel does is random, but the little ones try to bite them isn't it?"

"Ah, you're right. Group 2, you hear us right?! Keep your heads on and just see what out for whatever that stupid kitten is about to do!"

"OSU!" feeling a little emboldened by their comrade's support, Group 2 began to push on with an almost feverish pace, jabbing back Neiquel's paws with spears and halberds and deflecting the tail sweeps before their Sweepers went to work on the Boss himself. Every so often, one or two members would back away to recover their health. Almost without missing a beat, the members beat out a rudimentary cycle where someone who was low on potions and crystals would dart to the supply crates and refill before darting back into the fray, all the while being cheered on by the watching members who were unable to take part directly due to a space restriction. There was barely enough space for 48 players to surround each boss and still have enough room leftover to dodge and attack properly without getting hit by their own support as it was.

"Don't get too confident." The blonde who stood out even amongst the group of heavily armoured archers called out gravely, "We're all still just on the first bar. We don't know if this pattern sticks or they switch it up when they hit a certain point."

"You're being a killjoy Naruto!" He heard Kline laughing it off from somewhere amongst the melee fighters, just as a strange ominous fanfare began playing in the background.

The blonde himself merely smirked, "I bet you're regretting that right about now."

The Manticore reared back again and beat its wings, sending those were caught off guard to the ground shortly before breathing out a strange green fog out onto the amassed players.

"That doesn't look like any status attack I've seen so far!" Someone shouted with slight hysteria.

"Our Health Points didn't drop either." Siegfried commented in his usual soft spoken manner, "But that strange sound isn't going away. In fact, it's changed."

"What is that sound anyway?" Naruto muttered as the clearers warily continued to wail on the oversized Floor Boss.

"I'm not sure... it sounds like beeping." A slightly more wary Kirito who had excused himself from the front lines to ensure that nothing was really wrong commented from the safety of the door.

"Yeah, I kind of have ears too." The blonde archer retorted before turning back to face the boss, "Whatever it is, I've never heard of _good_ beeping."

"Give me a second and I'll check properly." The blonde could hear his friend tapping on his interface while he continuous rained spears on the oversized pig, "Huh?"

That one confused 'Huh' probably scared the blonde more than a censored swear, "What? What's wrong?"

"Kirito looked up at the worried with his brows furrowed tightly, "I can't open my inventory and there's some sort of countdown slapped on it." He gave the boss a sparing look before calling out to the rest of the clearers, "Does anyone else have that problem?!"

Naruto chewed on his lips with a gleam in his eyes as he surveyed the clearers, evaluating the situation, his hands almost seemed like they belonged to someone else as they continued to fire off spears with disturbing accuracy, spiking the tentacles to the walls with ease despite his inattention as panicked yells of realization began to sound through the chamber.

"Keep your heads people!" The blonde finally thundered so that his voice could reach even the furthest of the clearers, "Groups 4, 5 and 6! Get ready to replace anyone whose inventory has been affected! _Ravagers,_ move out and try to keep the Manticores too confused to focus on them! On Three!"

Reassured by the man's strong and firm voice, the players began to regroup around each other, primarily focusing on staying alive without the support of any potions or crystals while a small squad of five archers broke from Naruto's squadron and swiftly ran towards the melee.

"THREE!"

The _Ravagers_ began darting up the Manticore's limbs into order to fire their load of small spears directly into the Boss' eyes and mouth, annoying it the way a fly would as the players below them began to move.

A colourful wave of players broke away from the Bosses as another one slipped between the gaps of the first; a few of them even managed to high five the replacements with good cheer. The first wave containing the replacement Tanks were led by a roaring Egil as they surged forwards, pushing the large lion and it's two smaller friends backwards with their shields, axes or bodies, allowing the Ravagers to disembark safely and return to cover behind the _Sharp Shooters. _

All this happened during a span of less than a minute as every player moved with a smooth confidence.

"Watch out for his tail," the blonde called out just to be safe, "and remember! Three beats pause and his fangs or claws come into play. If it comes in high, roll away to the sides, if it comes in low, defend and try not to get knocked off your feet!"

The blonde himself slowly retreated to the open gates and seemed to station himself by the doors, watching over the fighters with a stony expression, a stark contrast with how he usually held himself as a light buzz of chatter could be heard from the resting players behind him.

"It was a little dicey there for a moment but this is surprisingly easy isn't it?" A resting Asuna commented with a spark in her eyes, "Do you think we're finally getting stronger?"

"We have to be. We're used to all their standard moves since we train with normal weapons on a daily basis, mostly thanks to the blonde idiot over there," Lightning grudgingly jerked her chin at the blonde who stood at the entrance silently, "All we need to do is watch out for their gimmicks. As long as we watch out for his movements, getting our inventory sealed isn't really a problem."

The blonde who was still standing at the very edge of the chamber and silently surveying everything with a driven expression that Argo had jokingly taken to calling his Game Face, simply nodded slowly in response as something managed to catch his attention.

A worried Asuna frowned at him as she walked up to the stone faced blonde, it generally didn't bode very well for whoever happened to be on the receiving end of the blonde's Game Face, "What are you looking at over there?"

The blonde motioned towards the left most team that seemed to be a part of Group 4, assigned to keeping the left Manticore busy, "They're interesting."

"Oh them?" The girl beside him sighed with some relief, "They're pretty good aren't they? They're fairly new as well."

"You know them?"

"She shrugged lightly, sending her long brown tresses bouncing, "They only just managed to join the clearers within the last few floors or so. We occasionally meet up for lunch and just chat I guess." At the blonde's long questioning look, Asuna grinned, "Just me and the girls. No need to get jealous." She added jokingly.

"Hmmm..."

Unlike the rest of them who had switched out with the replacement teams, this particular team continued to stay on the battlefield even though he was fairly sure that they had been doused by the green fog as well. It wasn't that strange as a whole if they truly managed to avoid every single attack.

Doubtful, but possible.

The group of five composed of three tanks and two sweepers seemed to retain their cheerful disposition as they dodged the whip like tails. Just when they were very nearly clear of the second one, the last one managed to catch the slower leader by the chest, sending him flying with ease. As the dark haired boy landed with grunt, Naruto's eyebrow slowly rose as he noticed another girl run up to him and apply a crystal that she had grabbed from the supply chests to his chest.

The tank seemed to thank his friend, a cheerful girl with green hair, before rejoining the rest of the team. The girl herself stuck to walls, staying away from the green fog while she kept an eye on her team's overall health bar.

"Asuna?"

"Hmmm?"

"Go for lunch with me tomorrow."

The girl stared at him shock, "Wh-wha-what? Li-Like a date?"

Naruto gave her a strange look before elaborating, "I mean call your friends out tomorrow and introduce them to me. I think I'm about to owe them a very big lunch."

Ignoring the glare stabbing into his back, the blonde turned around; white cloak whipping around him as he beckoned to the resting members, deliberately sending a vicious grin that no one else could see at the man in the red robe standing apart from everybody else.

Heathcliff narrowed his soft brown eyes at the blonde as a tacit understanding passed between both of them.

An understanding that the blonde was about to screw up Sword Art Online even more that is.

Naruto smiled widely, "New plan. We're having fried pussy tonight."

******The Hunter******

Play Stephanie - Friends

"Look at that idiot. He's dancing like a complete fool." Argo muttered with a sweat drop as their blonde friend wildly danced around the bonfire, limbs flailing wildly and a dopey grin on his face. Naruto, loudly laughing, grabbed Kline and the two of them swung around like cackling mad man, putting every other person around the bonfire in danger of being slapped silly.

"Maa, let him be." Asuna sighed in relief as she leaned against a boulder sipping from a bamboo container, "This is the first time he's ever been to the After Boss party. He must be feeling really happy for once."

"For once?" The small girl inquired with a curious twitch of her nose, "I know that this is probably the first time we cleared a boss without a single death, but for once?"

The taller girl gave her a knowing glance, "I'm not saying anything since I know you're just going to sell that information."

"I promise I won't," Argo replied with mock graveness, eliciting a giggle from the brown haired girl, "Pinky swear and hope to die." She winked in a conspiratorial manner, "Come on, even I like to gossip about men from time to time."

The princess of the Knights of the Blood glanced at the kimono clad girl beside her who was too engrossed in watching Naruto dance like a mad man, his long yellow pony tail flicking around like a pseudo tail, to notice their conversation "You know how that idiot is." Asuna shrugged, "He won't really say it but dealing with the KoB's upkeep has been a little tough on him lately, what with all the new members we've been getting. This is the first time in a while that I've seen him so….. _carefree_ I suppose"

"I guess you have a point." Argo glanced at the blonde with an appraising eye, "That's why I'm never going to join a guild, it's just idiocy sometimes."

"What do you mean?" Asuna asked with a curious glint.

"I suppose you wouldn't know since you haven't played MMORPG's before," Argo leaned back into her seat and stared into the depths of her container with a strange melancholic look in her eyes, "This concept isn't even something you could call new. Be it game or real life, it's not that strange to find a place where people gather and pool their resources to achieve something they can't as an individual."

"What's wrong with that? That's exactly like how real life companies function." Asuna pointed out curiously.

"You're thinking about real life where agreements are enforced by legal contracts. In online games like this where there's no clearly defined authority structure, every single person's liability is limited only to their avatar." Argo replied softly, "Even if Sword Art Online takes that concept a little further that sort of mind-set is a little hard to change. Everybody but the most decent people will always be looking out for himself and the responsibility of collating and maximizing those resources still falls on the shoulders of the most capable leader. It's not improbable that he would have to deal with strong minded, passionate people clashing with each other, questioning his authority, or those that seek to overthrow him and bring them all together."

"So…. you are saying that he shouldn't be doing this?"

The short girl seemed to smile briefly, "Don't get me wrong, Naruto is a strong person but with circumstances like this, where the risks are as large as the rewards, it wouldn't really be unexpected to see him lose faith in himself. In any other game, the most any leader would risk is their member's faith and their guild's disbanding, but in this game he risks that much more. A burden like that can change a person, and not always for the best."

The small cat like person seemed to shake off the sudden melancholy air, "Ah… I'm sorry for going off on such a depressing topic. I'm sure that Ruto-bou will be fine once he gets used to it."

With that half-hearted assurance, Argo was about hurriedly disappear into the descending darkness on her quick feet when a warm hand caught hers with an iron grip.

"Is…. something wrong Asuna-chan?"

"Did something happen to you before?" the girl's soft and melodious voice contained a hint of steel to it.

"Something like that," Argo admitted when she realized that Asuna was not about to let her go, "I used to play another game where I joined a guild. It was a small and comfortable guild, so you could say I didn't take it very well when the guild was disbanded due to some infighting even though I thought it was too much trouble to help fix it. Pitiful isn't it? Getting attached to someone whose face you don't even know." The shorter girl awkwardly tried to laugh it off with a half-smile when the grip on her hand softened.

"Naruto won't change." Asuna paused and seemed to correct herself, "No, I can't say that, but even if he changes, I promised him already. No matter what happens, I'll always be there to support him."

"Then you're a braver person than I will ever be."

******The Hunter******

**21st Floor – Mortexia**

Play Yu Takahashi – Genjitsu to iu Na no Kaibutsu to Takatau Monotachi

Lightning drew in a deep breath as she took the appropriate stance with a short sword held loosely in both hands. The lithe girl lunged forward with her body angled lowly to her ground, stopping just short of the house sized spider she was fighting and using the momentum to whip the sword in her right hand at the creature, the blade pulsed with a deep crimson glow as a Sword Skill activated, "_Savage Fulcrum."_ She whispered as she stabbed it into the spider's cluster of basketball sized eyes.

Savage Fulcrum was a rather high level Sword skill whose main benefit was its five hit rapid combo that enabled the user to keep her target stunned for the duration of the five blows, though its main drawback of having rather low damage per hit kept it from being too overpowered. Then again, damage output wasn't really a concern for her at the moment as a red comet hurtled through the air and buried itself deep in the spider's forehead.

There was a short paused before another spear took out the spider's last eye, causing it to emit a loud clicking howl as it reared back on its feet.

"You're too slow, Joker. Your timing is off by 0.6 seconds." The pink haired girl growled as she whirled around, the blade in her left hand lashing out like a whip for another Staccato, carving a hole deep in the spider's chest and draining the last of its health. Without even pausing to wait for the blue pixels to fade away, the pink haired girl immediately moved onto the next spider with a ferocity befitting her in-game name.

"Not everyone is as driven as you." Wedged between several branches a top a tree in the middle of valley, Naruto gave himself a brief moment to rub his strained eyes tiredly as he tried to reacquire the new target through the dim lighting. Training with Lightning was like playing one of those time limit games where you had to kill as many monsters as possible.

The permanently dark atmosphere made to emulate eternal night, the slobbering, eight feet tall spiders and the black castle that stood in the background while lightning thundered around it really didn't help the comparison. It just reminded him of those horror games where you had to stay alive no matter the cost.

Sunshine Valley indeed.

Someone had a seriously twisted sense of humour.

Darting around the battle field like a tornado with her shoulder length hair unfurling behind her, Lightning sent a replying growl back at him, "Why don't you come down from your nice and comfy tree and say that to my face?"

A spear buried itself in the ground beside her. Lightning spun around and was about to chastise the blonde for missing when the ground seemed to writhe with a splash of spider fluid as a nearly transparent spider that had been creeping up on her died painfully.

"That's why." The blonde up on the tree fired back sarcastically, "That's the twentieth Creeper that I had to deal with since you only focus on what's in front of you."

A blade buried itself beside him and Naruto paled as he heard something squealing directly in his ears. The blonde whipped around with a gleaming spear, _"Thrust."_

The somewhat smaller spider compared to the ones Lightning had been dealing with writhed, all eight limbs flailing as it was impaled directly through the head before the blonde let go of the spear and rammed it deeper into the spider with a kick before tumbling is way down the other side of the tree.

When the blonde landed, he nervously gazed around the area, wiping the non-existent perspiration of his brow as the dead spider landed with a dull thud; the archer glanced behind him where Lightning was simply staring at him with a mocking smirk and an arched brow.

"Point to you."

Lightning scoffed and flicked back her bangs as another short sword appeared in her off hand with a blue blur, "Watch your own back before you talk the next time. This is why you can't train with Asuna and Kirito anymore. You're so busy playing hero that it's almost sickening."

Actually, it probably had more to do with the humongous spiders if the way she screamed blue murder and ran all the way back to the first floor was any indication.

Wisely enough, the blonde chose to keep his thoughts to himself. The blonde pulled himself to his feet with a groan, "Let's just continue. We're nearly at the castle already and I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary."

"Fine," The woman standing beside him agreed with a reluctant nod, "Now that you mention it, I can't even remember how long we've been here."

A little over half an hour later by the blonde's estimation, the two of them finally managed to cut a path through the sparse valley of trees. At the very end of the valley, the two players came upon the castle that had been hanging in the background the entire time.

"So this is the 21st's floor's dungeon huh?" The woman beside him muttered as she gripped her swords a little tighter.

"Cheesy but strangely effective." The blonde murmured as the squinted up at the castle's massive pair of doors made of dark, rusty steel. The very tops of the gates were obscured by strange black fog, to say nothing of the rest of the castle.

Behind him, Lightning glanced at her clock, "We still have time. Let's go in and see if we can make a rudimentary map."

He gingerly touched the pitted steel and pushed it open a little to peer into the darkness with a frown as he heard something clicking behind the gates, "What is that sound?"

"What level is your Detection?"

Naruto thought for a while, "Bout 600?"

"Mine is only 500." The pink haired warrior smirked and motioned at the door, "Ladies first." Prompting the blonde to roll his eyes and crouch at the door, slowly edging his way in with a spear at the ready before abruptly lunging through.

Staying low to the ground, the blonde whirled around as Lightning followed him in, visibly annoyed by his childish antics, "Clear!"

Standing up, Naruto gave the pink haired woman a stupid grin, "I've always wanted to say that." He added just in time to pale as a house sized spider fell out of the ceiling, landing directly behind him with a massive crash. The blonde grit his jaw and whirled around with a spear already notched and drawn when the large arachnid swiped at his bow with a claw tipped limb. The blonde twisted the bow and released the spear directly into the spider's basketball sized eyes a split second before his bow received the heavy blow instead of him. The _Lilt Wood_ bow was barely able to withstand the claw before it buckled and shattered even as the spider reared back in pain; the force of the blow sending the archer flying backwards into Lightning along with the shards of what used to be his bow.

Grunting, the pink haired woman in the cream white uniform barely held onto the larger blonde before she managed to recover her footing, "Thanks." She heard her friend mutter briefly before he staggered back onto his feet with another spear already at hand as the injured arachnid began rumbling towards them again.

Frowning, Lightning clamped a hand on his shoulder and forcefully pushed him behind her, "Get back, you don't have a bow."

"I'm not _completely _useless without a bow, you know."

In short order, several similarly sized spiders fell all around them and the two of them were instantly thrown into an almost frantic blur of action as they began bashing, stomping and killing spiders.

"Clear?" Lightning scoffed amidst a frenzy of graceful slashes. A yellow blur lanced through the gap of her attacks in a fluid motion, complimenting her barrage of light but rapid slashes with his slow and heavy spear. The spear pierced her target before lifting it up into the air and bashing it into the ground repeatedly, "Your definition of _clear _needs some adjustment."

The yellow blur huffed as he skewered another three smaller spiders on top of the one already pinned to his spear and spun them around like a wind mill before throwing the screeching beasts into a deep chasm along with his spear, "I might have forgotten to look up."

"Forgotten?" There was an almost hysterical disbelief in her question, "How can you forget to look up?"

"Quite easily. Actually, does _anyone_ ever look up?" The blonde muttered.

"I would!"

"Oy vey, now I know why your sister refuses to train with you." The blonde punctuated his words with a series of vicious curses and stomps, "Everything has to be just right with you doesn't it?"

"What the hell does that mean?" Lightning whirled on the blonde with one blade dripping with spider guts directed at him threateningly.

Naruto smirked snidely as he gingerly pointed the disgusting blade away, "It means whatever the hell you think it does."

"What? You have a problem with me?"

"Who doesn't, you damned gorilla of a woman!" Naruto countered just as a loud hissing interrupted them, an absolutely oversized spider rearing its head at them before lunging at them with a series of disturbing, clacking noises.

Naruto and Lightning both rounded on the interloper angrily and simultaneously punched the twelve foot tall spider with their bare hands. The spider's eight beady eyes bugged as its mandibles were crushed shortly before it was sent flying, "Can't you see that we're busy?"

****The Hunter****

19th Floor - Ralback

Serah heaved a heavy breath as she allowed herself to fall on her back, limbs splayed out in a completely unladylike manner, enjoying the feel of the soft grass underneath her.

Kirito smiled faintly and continued chewing on his blade of grass, "I think that's enough for today. You've improved quite a lot."

"Neh, Kirito," The girl on the grass grinned widely up at the boy dressed entirely in black who as he stared up at the sky with a faraway expression, "Thanks for helping me out today."

The dark haired boy seemed to snap out of his day dream to gaze at the pink haired girl as sent a victory sign at him. Smiling weakly, he brushed back the bangs obscuring his view, "It's alright. I promised after all and I didn't really have any training planned until later anyway."

The bubbly pink haired girl who was dressed in some cream white leather armour and brown hoses tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Yeah, but I really appreciate it. I know that something like _Diagonal_ just requires me to hold the sword facing downwards, but I was really having trouble with the ones that needed more complicated stances, like how Rage Spike needs your body to be angled to the ground properly and you need to stab upwards at the perfect time."

Kirito chuckled softly and tapped the sturdy tree he was leaning on with a fist, "Seeing you keep crashing into a tree was amusing."

"Mou… Don't be so mean," Serah said with a pout as she pulled herself upright with a groan, "Getting a feel of the timing was really hard."

Kirito grinned at the girl's embarrassed expression, "And once you do, the real problem becomes learning how to set yourself up for a Sword Skill in the middle of battle. Because of the cool down between Skills you can't just keep shooting them off and something like that takes a lot of stamina."

"Yeah…." Serah agreed with a light frown before a grin replaced it, "I can't wait until I can fight as fluidly as you or even Naruto-san do… The way you two flow in battle, going from simple attacks, setting up the perfect window of opportunity to release a powerful blow."

"Well… I can't really say that I'm that good, but Naruto and his archers are something of a special case. They're not actually fighting as fluidly as you think."

"What do you mean?" Serah inquired with fascination.

"You already know that the opening stance is pretty much what triggers a Sword Skill right?" At the girl's curious nod, Kirito continued with a frown, "There's a reason why he only uses low level Spear skills. Beginner skills like _Thrust _only require that the user have skin contact with the spear's butt and thrust it forward. He takes advantage of that, holding onto it like he would an arrow and that's all it takes. Higher level Spear skills require stances that aren't possible in conjunction with a bow, so he more or less improvises."

"If anything… that's probably even more impressive that he just makes do with beginner skills like that and still be able to what most people can't." Serah pointed out with shining eyes, "I can't even do something simple like that."

"Don't worry about it. You'll get used to pretty soon," The dark haired boy threw her a bamboo container filled with water, "Speaking of Lightning, why didn't you just ask her or even Asuna for instructions? Both of them are actually better than me in terms of technical details, I just sort of go with the flow with what feels right when it comes to things like this."

The girl in the cream white armour grinned as she accepted the drink gratefully, "Asuna was the one who recommended you since you're one of the best sword users on the front lines." The young girl smirked knowingly, "Were you expecting Asuna-nee san to be here as well?"

Serah scuffed her boots on the hard packed earth beneath the tree with a sly pout, "Am I really that bad company that you have to talk about Asuna-nee san when you're with me?"

Kirito waved the teasing off with an uncomfortable smile, being put on the spot like that unnerved the teenager, "I was just curious. It was just so sudden that I was caught off guard, that's all."

"Tch. An answer like that isn't interesting…."

Dark eyes bugged at her, "What do you mean interesting? What's more interesting than getting out of this place before thinking about something like getting a girlfriend?"

"I mean, you're still young, you should say something like, _'I wouldn't have minded if she was here, then she could have seen me teaching you…'_" Serah spun around with hearts in her blue eyes, "KYAAAH! So cool!"

Kirito sweat dropped as he struggled to find an appropriate response to that, were all girls this strange?

"So… uh… Lightning?" the dark haired boy prompted.

The pink haired girl seemed to snap out of her haze with a half-hearted smile, "Maa…. How do you say… Lightning… she gets a little too intense. Everything has to be perfect and…."

The dark haired boy's eyebrows rose questioningly, "And?"

"Well…. She won't stop nagging me about wanting to fight on the frontlines… so I wanted to learn as much as I can. I'll show her that I can fight just as well as her." The energetic girl pumped a fist into the air with a determined expression, "After I show her everything I learnt with you, she won't have ANYTHING to complain about anymore!"

"Complain about _what_ exactly?"

Serah felt a chill run down her back as she turned around jerkily to see her sister coolly standing there with a raised eyebrow and her arms folded. Beside her, a decidedly amused Naruto swathed in his white cloak despite the summery weather sent her a foxy grin and a thumbs-up.

"Ehhh….." Serah desperately racked her brains for a way out, "I… I was thinking about learning the Sewing skill!" She stuttered unconvincingly, "Yeah, that's it! Armour's so expensive nowadays, ri-right, Kirito-kun?"

Lightning simply rolled her eyes as Serah tried to subtly strong arm the black haired boy into agreeing with her, keyword being tried.

His only response to give her a long look and yawn lazily.

"Use it for something more useful. There's no point learning it if you can't use it." She said shortly before striding off into town without another word, leaving a downtrodden Serah behind to stare at her retreating back until a large palm gently landed on her head and ruffled her hair affectionately.

"I think what your sister meant to say was that she'd rather pay the gold to get the armour rather than let you take a risk."

The pink haired girl smiled up at the tall man weakly, "Thanks, Naruto-san. Why were you two back so early anyway? My sister said that the two of you wouldn't be back till this evening."

"I said something, she said something, we got a little miffed at each other," The KoB member motioned at Lightning vaguely, "Then somewhere between her random mood swings and my imminent death, we somehow managed to map out the entire first level a little sooner than we expected." Naruto sweat dropped sheepishly, "I got the impression that the spiders were a little relieved to see us leave." Pushing off his tree, the man waved good bye at them over his shoulder, "I'll see you guys later for the quest right?"

"Try not to be late this time." The quiet dark haired boy retorted dryly.

"I'm just gonna take a nap, come wake me up or something."

"Sure thing, I have a knuckle sandwich alarm clock right here waiting for you."

******The Hunter******

**20th Floor Sunshine City**

**Play Ai Kawashima – Kimi no Koe**

The main city on the 20th floor wasn't exactly big enough to qualify as a city but the smoky atmosphere combined with old styled brick and wood buildings gave Asuna the impression that the city was set back in old England despite the obviously modern interior decorations as her white heels clacked on the stone paved ground on her way to the meeting at a small café situated right in the centre of town.

Naruto and Kirito 's excitement had been particularly contagious, especially when Argo had finally found the café since it seemed to be the starting point to a special quest. From the bits of complicated conversations that she had managed to pick up from the two excited boys while desperately trying to stem her annoying nosebleed was that the quest was one of five that opened every twenty levels and would reward them with an extra skill slot, something of a precious commodity to every player.

"Asuna!" A cheerful Tamamo waved at her from the small group which had already gathered in front of the three storey tall building.

"Asuna-hime! You're late!" Kline grinned from beside Tamamo.

The girl in white skidded to a stop in front of them and stooped slightly as she clutched at an imaginary stitch in her side, "I'm sorry about that, training ran a little late…"

"Translation, she was busy having too much fun torturing the new recruits that she lost track of time," The long haired blonde standing at the very back of the group teased her with grin, causing the miffed Asuna to stomp on his foot with her heels on her way into the café.

Ignoring the comically sobbing Naruto as he clutched at his foot, Asuna beckoned to her friends with her elbow hooked on a protesting Tamamo that wanted to comfort the blonde man, "What are you guys waiting for? Come on, I can't wait to see what this quest is all about."

"She's even more excited than us." Naruto muttered under his breath as Kirito patted his shoulder with a completely unsympathetic grin, "Stop looking like you're enjoying this so much." The blonde snapped at his friend.

Kirito's grin only grew a little wider as he casually stepped over the blonde.

Inside the little café on the top floor of the building, their little group was already crowded around the only NPC present, an old woman dressed in a black dress, with a white apron and a white bonnet set atop her neatly combed curls while a strangely soothing tune that sounded like there was an old gramophone hidden somewhere in the café played in the background.

"So what's the quest? What do we need to kill this time?" Kirito questioned dryly with a sullen Naruto trailing behind him, only to stop short as the entire group turned around with pale faces, "What's wrong? Why is everyone looking like that?"

"We uh….." Kline began haltingly until an impatient Argo elbowed him in the side, "We need to dress up like maids." The short girl noted shortly.

"Dress up like maids? What?"

Argo stepped aside and motioned at the NPC, she says that to complete this quest, every one of us has to dress up as a MAID for at least one hour and entertain the guests that come in."

"Maids? That's it?" Naruto shrugged easily while Kirito instantly went completely white, "Why not?"

"Wow…. He's pretty nonchalant about this isn't he?" Serah mumbled with a gleam in her eyes, "Do you think he's done it before?"

A trail of blood began leaking out of her nose.

Beside her, Asuna's beatific smile was marred by the same blood trail, "Why don't we let all the boys go first?"

"Wai-" Kline and Egil were about to protest loudly when a sly Argo stomped on their feet, causing them to yelp. Taking the chance, Argo slapped both their backs with a wide smile, "Agreed."

Shrugging offhandedly, the blonde man moved towards the changing rooms where a set had apparently already been prepared while the remaining three males had to be _assisted _into their respective changing rooms with a multiple kicks and shoves.

Egil was the first to appear, the black one piece dress with a knee length skirt was stretched over his wide and muscled chest, almost to bursting point as the little white bonnet looked strangely dainty atop his shaven dome.

"Pfft….. Argo…" Asuna barely managed to choke out, "Cyrstal."

The dark skinned axe user stood there, enduring the repeated flashes that slowly destroyed whatever remained of his pride and dignity when the changing room next to him opened.

Kline stepped out, staggering around on the dainty heels, "This feels strangely comfortable. Sort of… airy. But my feet hurt." The maid uniform fit him marginally better than it did for Egil but the bonnet looked as if it was tangled up in his spiky red hair while his red stubble clashed horribly with his black and white uniform.

"Oh Kami. Help. Can't breathe…" even Lightning had succumbed as she quietly choked to herself in a corner.

"Why not?!" The self-proclaimed samurai demanded with a strange falsetto, "I look good don't I?"

"Urk, stay away!" the pink haired woman shoved the man away from her as chills ran up and down her back every time she even glanced in his direction or heard his disturbing falsetto.

While the rest of them were busy teasing a brightly blushing Egil and a strangely comfortable Kline, Tamamo, Serah and Asuna waited for the remaining two males with bated breath.

Their hopes and dreams were finally answered when the first of the last two rooms opened for Kirito.

The raven haired boy's already fair skin and soft features only seemed to be enhanced by the maid uniform that he had been stuffed into as he stood there in booted heels.

Kirito who was blushing like a red light bulb tried to desperately shield his face with his hands a cackling Argo proceeded to take his pictures, "Why so shy Kiri-bou!? You look good in that don't you?! You might as well be a girl since you look so good in that maid outfit."

"GAH! I DON'T NEED THE SKILL SLOT. SCREW THIS!" Just as he was asbout to run back into the changing rooms, two arms clamped around his preventing him from going anywhere, even with his impressive strength stats, "Asuna? Serah? Wh-why are the two of you smiling like that?"

Tamamo quaked in a corner, her ears laid down flat at the mere sight of their horrible grins, "Serah-chan and Asuna-chan looks scary."

"You're not going anywhere, Kirito-kun." Asuna said while Serah smiled sweetly on Kirito's other side, "Not until we've finished this quest."

"What are you doing?"

"Having fun." Was the delighted answer.

The demise of Kirito's dignity was narrowly averted at the last second by the last changing room finally opening for a beautiful blonde woman to step out in a dainty manner, "It's a good fit, but I like my skirts a little longer." Naruto's long blonde hair had been let loose from its ponytail as it cascaded down his back in a golden waterfall, "Obaa-chan, do you have any longer skirts and some makeup?"

As the blonde woman casually walked past them with an air of complete grace and confidence, Serah and Asuna dropped to their knees while Tamamo squealed happily and jumped on Naruto with a purr.

"What's with this strange sense of utter defeat?"

Everyone else was a similar state of shock as the beautiful blonde glided over to the counter and began to expertly apply some eye shadow and lip gloss.

"Egil?"

"Uhhhh….?"

"Is it wrong to fall in love with another man?"

Egil scooted away from a drooling Kline.

Argo had long since dropped her recording crystal and had been reduced to a shaking lump of disbelief as she curled up in a corner.

"His breasts are bigger than mine!" Lightning cried out in disbelief, causing everyone to stare at her incredulously as the shocks just kept on coming.

"I didn't actually put those on, they came with the outfit," Over at the counter, Naruto pointed out dryly as he continued to stroke Tamamo's ears with a soft smile, calming her down significantly, "Tamamo-chan, do you want some make up as well?"

The young girl bit her lip and tried to nod as slowly as she could so that she could keep the blonde's hands on her head, "Here, close your eyes."

"He's better at being a woman than I am!" Serah wailed comically as Naruto began to apply some eye shadow and blush on Tamamo, "I don't even know what that powder was for!"

It was a very sullen hour that passed for everybody save Tamamo who was too busy staring at her mirror, giggling to herself every few seconds, and Naruto who flitted around the café serving cups of tea and cakes with a graceful smile while Kline, Egil and Kirito basically hid themselves in the darkest corner they could find with a cloud of gloomy despair surrounding them.

Things came to a particular head when several other clearers found their way to the café.

One of them whistled pleasantly as a beaming Naruto greeted them at the door with a chirp, "Table for five?"

The man that had whistled leered at the blonde woman, "Not bad at all. The quality of the NPC's here keeps surprising me every time I see one." His hand slowly made its way up the blonde woman's butt until he found something sharp and cold pressing against his crotch.

Naruto smiled sweetly as he pushed the dagger even deeper, one side of his skirt was hiked up to show a brace of daggers strapped to his thigh, "Would you like to keep that hand or that twig?"

"Eeep." Swallowing deeply, all three men slowly held their hands up in surrender as the blonde woman smiled sweetly and left them standing at the door like the proverbial group of spare pricks.

As Naruto continued to serve his customers with a bright smile, the man lost all strength in his knees and slowly slid to the ground with a dreamy sigh.

"I think I'm in love."

That was the day the Naruto fan club was officially born.

****The Hunter****

"Your cup of tea." Argo mumbled quietly as she set the cup of tea down with a loud clatter, prompting the blonde who had been staring out the window to glare at her, "That's not very polite."

"Bite me." Argo muttered under her breath.

"I don't swing that way," the blonde man who had his hair back in a neat pony tail dead panned as his hand continued to stroke Tamamo's hair fondly as she slept on his lap. Every stroke caused the slender girl to emit a rumbling purr from the very depths of her throat, much to everybody's amusement.

The girl with the bob cut glanced at where the old maid NPC seemed to be sleeping against the wall and sat down with some relief, "I never thought I'd see the day that I'd be wearing something as feminine as heels."

The blonde man snorted lightly as he glanced at the rogue. Deprived of her feature obscuring hood and bulky robes, the girl's short stature combined with the maid dress gave the sour Argo an air of unbearable cuteness that would have probably one hit kill any lolicons in the vicinity, "Why so serious? My heart even skipped a beat you know."

Argo rolled her shoulders in annoyance, "Flattery isn't going to get you any discounts."

"It was worth a try," The blonde admitted with a nod, "What news do you have?"

Argo gave him a shrewd look, "What's your offer?"

The blonde glanced around the café to ensure that no one was watching them before he plonked a sack full of jingling coins in front of the short girl.

The information dealer sighed, "You take the fun out of negotiation. Don't you know merchant etiquette?" When the blonde completely failed to react to her needling, Argo sighed with another roll of her eyes, "There's absolutely no thrill when you look at me all serious like that."

Discreetly pocketing the sack of coins that she knew without a doubt was every coin that the blonde could spare; Argo placed her hands on the table palms down, "I've heard some disturbing news recently. A few players have been going missing, mostly whenever they are training alone."

"Someone with a grudge against Beta testers?"

Argo frowned, "I thought about that too, but it doesn't look like it since quite a few of those went missing were well known anti-Beta testers. The only thing they seem to have in common was the fact that they liked to train alone. I have no idea if they were Player Killed or if they were just defeated by monsters." Anticipating the blonde's next question, Argo continued heedlessly, "The Monument of Life isn't very clear about it either since there could be any number of ways to kill indirectly."

The blonde nodded silently, "Please look it up for me."

Argo smiled half-heartedly and stood up with a wince, "Looks like it's back to the torture chamber for me."

Naruto smiled faintly, "I'll go and get some ice cream ready for you."

"Thanks, Ruto. You're a nice guy." Argo hesitated, "Don't change."

"I haven't changed…. But then, you don't really know what I'm really like either." Naruto leaned forward with a strange gleam in his eyes, "People tend to stay away from me when they do."

Argo had no idea how to interpret the man's strange words.

******The Hunter******

"That maid uniform looks good on you." Kirito teased lightly as a tired Asuna dropped into the seat across from him with a clatter. After their hour was finally over and the males had each received their new skill slots with much relief, it was the girls' turn to play maid for the day while the males took their turn as fake customers.

The brown haired girl grunted none too politely, "Walking around like that is tiring. I'm surprised Naruto didn't have any problem at all. Lightning hasn't even left the changing room yet."

"By this point, I'd be more surprised if the idiot did." Kirito mumbled, completely unashamed of the spite in his voice, "The idiot totally looked like he enjoyed prancing around the café in a skirt."

"You don't really have any right to say anything. All the three of you did was mope in a corner for an hour while the prancing idiot as you call him was the only reason you passed the quest." Asuna smiled wryly as she took a sip of comfortingly warm tea, "Then again, all the quest really needs us to do is dress up like this and serve a few people. We don't really need to be all serious about it, not that that old lady is watching anyway."

Kirito glanced at the sleeping lady and sighed heavily.

"Don't look so down." Asuna chastised him lightly, "Once you sit down and relax a little, this is actually a pretty nice place." She breathed in deeply, a light breeze playing with her long brown locks, as she enjoyed the scent of her hot tea and the sound of and old record playing in the back ground. All around the café, old windows of stained glass was thrown open, allowing a gentle breeze to blow in, stopping the interior of the small café from getting too stifling while colourful shadows danced around the varnished wooden floor.

As a whole, the little shop had the air of one of those quaint yet sophisticated little coffee shops that she imagined writers and college students would visit on a regular basis for some relaxation.

"I guess….. Though some better BGM would have helped," Kirito added with some amusement at the girl's content expression, "That scratchy old record kind of grates on my nerves especially when it just keeps looping over and over again."

"Go find Naruto and hold his hand," Asuna giggled evilly at the mental image as she urged the scared looking boy, "He has some music stored in his Nerve Gear."

"Why is your nose bleeding again?" The mood suddenly shifted as Kirito's eyes lit up with dawning comprehension, "Wait…. Are you sure that's exactly what he said? That he has music stored in his Nerve Gear?" the raven haired boy questioned with a piercing stare.

A little nonplussed, and more than a little afraid of his intensity, Asuna nodded slowly, "Why? What's wrong with having a music player in your Nerve Gear?"

"Sometimes I forget that you're not as familiar with gaming technology as us..." Kirito ran a hand through his hair with some frustration as he stared warily at the laughing blonde, "There's nothing _wrong _with having a music player per se, the problem here stems from the fact that Nerve Gears that were outfitted with music player hardware are basically extinct. Standalone music players were taken out nearly three years ago because there were too many complaints about them crashing and screwing with the sound systems already inbuilt into the game engines in most Virtual Reality games available at the time, so it was taken out in favour of better specs and capacity." Kirito gestured to emphasize his point, "Today, there are less than 100 Nerve Gears in existence with vanilla music player capability, and more than half of them belong to Akihiko Kayaba himself, the rest either belong to private collectors or are stuck in museums as an example of humanity's first step into the VR era. In fact, there's one in the Tokyo Miraikan the last time I looked, which was last October, and none of those have the capacity to run a game as advanced as Sword Art Online."

"Wha-What do you mean?"

Seeing the slowly dawning look of apprehension on her face, Kirito hesitated but pushed forward, "To sum it all up, the hardware was only included in first generation Nerve Gears. If someone wanted music player compatibility with SAO, that person would either have needed to have in depth knowledge about Sword Art Online in order to create homebrew software and a modded Nerve Gear custom made for Sword Art Online's programming script..." Kirito paused with a sombre look, "Or one the original 100 intentionally upgraded and specified to something like SAO."

Given what he had seen from Naruto so far, Kirito placed him as a casual gamer and hacker at best, which ruled out the former and he doubted that Naruto was capable of upgrading an original Nerve Gear on his own.

She frowned slightly, "I think I understand what you're saying, but you can't believe that he is Kayaba Akihiko himself can you?"

"Not personally no, their personalities are far too different to be faked, but if we consider the level of knowledge he has displayed about Sword Art Online so far and the way he hunts for exploits or bugs, I'd say he was at least close enough to someone on the production team to have seen a rough draft of the encoding to know where to _start _looking, and since Kayaba Akihiko made this game almost on his own..." Kirito trailed off uncomfortably, he was not used to intense discussions such as this with another person, far more used to dealing with problems on his own.

"Why can't he be one of those personal collectors you mentioned? If he could afford an original Nerve Gear, it stands to reason that he could afford to pay someone to upgrade it for him." Asuna defended hesitantly.

"I actually agree with you there," The black haired boy allowed, "That's why I'm not asking him right now. I'm not very good at stuff like... interpersonal relationships so I just want to see if you noticed anything beforehand..." He shook his head, "Wait... never mind… I'll find out myself. Sorry for bothering you."

The girl, whose biggest problems half a year ago was what clothes to wear to a date groaned softly as the raven haired boy stood up abruptly and left with a strange expression.

Why did it feel like things were just getting more and more complicated each day?

******The Hunter******

At the back of the shop, a shadow figure made her way through the jumble of mess as she looked for an escape route when she found an open window.

It was a little too small for her but it should suffice. She would rather fall to her death rather than act like a clown.

Running her blade amongst the side of the black knee length skirt to make it easier for her to move, Lightning slipped out the window when a strong wind nearly blew off the. Swallowing the thick lump in her throat, the swordswoman set her mind to it and wedged her swords into the crevices in the brick wall, using them like improvised grips. Painstakingly, the pink haired woman began to nimbly climb down the three story house before finally dropping down the last ten feet or so with a grunt.

Landing with a loud clack of her awkward heels, the pink haired woman sighed in relief and stood up.

Then she turned around and slowly paled at the sight of a very familiar blonde standing there and looking like the only reason his jaw wasn't already on its way to the centre of the earth was because of the paved bricks in its way, completely ignorant of the two ice creams were slowly melting in his hands.

"You saw." Lightning noted with a dangerously calm tone.

The blonde looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to jump and thank the heavens or bolt for the nearest bomb shelter.

"**You. Saw**." She repeated with a slightly more dangerous edge.

The blonde mutely shook his head as he took a step back.

"Don't tell anyone I was wearing black."

"Huh? But you were wearing white….." the blonde shut his mouth with a loud click though he was a little too late as Lightning immediately began advancing on him with her swords unsheathed and a completely evil smile on her face.

"Fu-GYAAAAAH!"

******The Hunter******

**Random Omake**

**Play Supercell - Kare**

Asuna watched as Kanno moodily walked around the compound with his head hung low and pouted childishly.

The blonde looked up from his work as the door to his office opened without so much as a knock, "Neh….. Narutooo," Asuna said sultrily, "I need your hel-."

"No."

"Ehh! You rejected me so swiftly and simply." Asuna fake sobbed into her hands.

"Because I already know it's going to be something really troublesome." Naruto replied promptly in a dry tone.

The brown haired girl pouted at him again, "Eeeeh! How would you know what I want your help with?!"

"I….." he got the impression that he'd be treated like a stalker if he told her that he'd been watching her.

"I…?"

"Wha-Whatever, I know you want me to help that guy from your Division get together with Otome from mine right? That's why I said No. it's too troublesome."

"Muu…" Asuna sidled up to the blonde with a sly expression, "Pretty please?"

A shiver ran down his back, "Ku…. I-I-... what makes you think I'd know how to get them together!?"

"Eeh… but you always know how to get people to cheer up, so I figured…."

"I've never even dated before." Naruto spluttered in embarrassment, "Cheering people up is one thing, but dealing with lo-lo-love is a whole different kettle of fish!"

"Oho?" Asuna got closer and closer, "Are you sure you won't do it? For me?"

Steam started escaping the blonde's ears, "I… I might have some idea…" he muttered quietly.

"That means you'll help! Yay!" Asuna cheerfully pumped her fist in to the air, "What do you need me to do?"

Naruto rubbed his temples with resignation, "There's a room downstairs that we don't use. When I give you the signal, get Otome in there."

Later.

"Kanno. Come here for a bit." Naruto called out to the lanky man in brown.

The man smiled weakly, "Is there something I can help you with, Joker-sama?"

"Not really." He nodded as the two of them began walking together, "I heard that you've been losing focus in practice lately."

"Oh, that… I just feel a little tired recently that's all." He made a weak laugh.

"Uh huh, and you staring over at the archery field had nothing to do with why Asuna knocked you out during today's practice."

"Oh….. uh…." The man bit his lip, uncertain of how to bluff his way out, "I'-I'm sorry, it won't happen again!"

"I'm sure you will, however, that's not the reason I'm asking you this," Naruto noted, "I'm asking why you haven't gone and asked Otome out yet."

The man stood stock still and slowly turned a bright red all over his body, "Jo-jo-jo-joker-sama!?"

Sighing, he patted the man's back, "I'm not sure about the Sweepers, but I can tell you that everybody in the Archer division noticed you looking at her, and we both know that she steals a few glances back from time to time. So why haven't you done anything yet?"

The man instantly drooped as they entered the inn, "I-I'm not confident enough… I mean, it's a little scary you know, back then I'm just this half assed student from a second rate college. Otome she… she looks so beautiful and confident, I just don't think she'd go for an otaku like me."

"That's up to her to decide isn't it?" Naruto asked simply, knowing the stigma of being an otaku was still prevalent even in this day and age, "Then again, I'll be frank and say that if she can't accept you as an Otaku, then the two of you wouldn't have been suitable for each other anyway, not unless the two of you can tolerate the other's flaws."

Kanno chuckled weakly as they came to a deserted part of an inn, "Thanks for coming out and talking to me like this, Joker-sama … D-do you have any idea about how I should start talking to her? I mean, it'd look pretty weird if I suddenly just came up to her and asked to chat."

"Yes." Naruto answered easily, "Talk about how you got locked in a room with her."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Naruto booted him through the door and locked it with his authority.

Kanno stumbled into the room and whirled around in confusion, "Joker-sama!?"

"An-Ano…. Kanno-san?" his heart skipped a few beats as he heard the voice of an angel, soft and feminine. Slowly, he turned around jerkily to stare at the woman with shoulder length wavy brown hair in light leather armour staring at him.

"O-o-o-Otome!?" He cursed his throat for suddenly sounding painfully squeaky.

The sound of the lock sliding into place with a loud click reverberated in the room.

Kanno whirled around to stare at the locked door, '_THAT's your big idea, you sonovabitch!?'_

The brown haired girl gained a wry expression as she understood what was happening, "It looks like Joker-sama and Asuna-sama were conspiring against us. With those two working together, it was pretty much a given." She gently took a seat on a chair; the plain table in the middle of the room was already preloaded with dinner, "So…. shall we have dinner?" she asked with a sweet smile.

The dark haired man stared at her incredulously for a few moments before chuckling helplessly, "Might as well not let the food go to waste. I'm still going to get him back for this."

With Naruto.

As Naruto turned the corner, he came face to face with a dry look from Asuna, "Lock them in a room together? Seriously?"

"I did say that I had no idea how to deal with this." Naruto pointed out with a dry look of his own.

Asuna kneaded her palm to her temples and sighed, "I guess it'll have to do. If anything, they'll have time to talk. That might be just what they need." She linked arms with him, "Oh well, I guess I owe you dinner."

"I demand food from the best restaurant, beef steak and wine." Naruto declared in a pompous manner, causing Asuna to poke him in the side indignantly.

"Sorry, ramen is all you get. Home cooked." Asuna cheerfully said as the two of them walked along the corridor awash in a beautiful orange light of a setting sun that set her long tresses alight like burnished bronze.

"You sound disturbingly cheerful. Incidentally, home cooked by whom exactly?"

"Me of course."

Naruto gave her a strained smile, "I'm about as scared of your cooking as I am of those spiders."

The girl shuddered, "Please don't remind me. Not after I finally got used to them."

"Aww.. Don't be mean. They were just introducing themselves to you." The blonde gently teased his friend with a wide smirk, "In fact, the way they jump on you and pin you the ground while they try to lick your face are sort of like puppies. If puppies were 8 feet tall with hoarse spiky hair and disgusting, clicking mandibles that is."

"You say anymore and I'll force feed you with my best dish."

"Can I start running in the opposite direction?"

"Nope."

"Can I at least ask what level your Cooking skill is at now?"

"150?"

"This is gonna suck isn't it?"

"You don't want it?"

"Meh. I'll eat every bite."

Asuna hummed in contentment as she leaned against the taller man a little, "You always do that no matter how bad it tastes."

******The Hunter******

**Post Edit note from Kur0: Kishi absolutely refused to let _this 'blatantly fluffy piece of writing that has absolutely no subtlety whatsoever'_ to go into the chapter, so I sort of used it as an Omake instead. And I was pissed that there was not much Asuna in this chapter. Bleeeh Kishi.**

***Cough* let's all pretend this is Hunter-verse canon anyway shall we?**

**ROMANCE BANZAI!**


	8. The One who Listened

**The Hunter Chapter 8**

**The One who Listened  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic.**

**Note from Kur0** : I'm sure most of you don't care but the stitches went fine and I found Kishi already complaining about the hard bed and the lack of cute nurses the very next day. Surprisingly, he liked the food. At any rate, I got him writing again. Not that he had anything else to do other than twiddle his thumbs anyway.

**Post edit note from Kishi;** I'm alive! Yay! Funny thing is, I never even noticed I got stabbed that night, for some strange reason, the pain only came WHILE I was being stitched up. Oh and I couldn't reach my two friends either, Nicole won't give me a straight answer, but I get the impression that she scared (shouted) them away before I woke up if the way the nurses keep shushing her is any indication.

Incidentally, you notice some seriously strange thing while you're high on pain killers. I just realized that I've been using blonde(feminine) instead of blond(masculine) to describe Naruto all this time and my sister's laptop uses American English while mine uses British. No wonder people keep telling me to pick armour or armor.

I'll shut up and stare at the lights now… pwetty….

**Soundtrack List**

Yuki Kajiura – Rule the Battlefield

Ivan Torrent – Legacy

Yuki Kajiura – Cynical World

Nier – Ashes to Dreams – Nuadhaich

******The Hunter******

**24****th**** Floor; Delos**

Naruto yawned widely, stretching backwards with a satisfied grunt before he fell back on the carpet of green grass. A transparent blue window hovered above his half lidded eyes as he lazily flicked a finger up and down the screen, making some minute adjustments to his skill set before opening another window to his inventory.

Crystal blue eyes flicked from one screen to the other as the blond thought to himself, seemingly weighing his options with one finger hovering over the delete button.

While he wasn't entirely sure if Kayaba could check his status from wherever he was at the moment, he didn't really feel like taking chances. On the other hand, the advantage he could gain from staying with his original plan outweighed the possibility that Kayaba was spying on him and the loss of his initial surprise factor if that assumption was true.

If it wasn't; then he didn't really have anything to lose other than the risk of being stabbed to death and that was a loss he could bear with enormous fortitude.

He hummed a quiet tune to himself as he deleted the Light Armour skill, losing all progress permanently and any passive or active skills that it had granted him, swapping his defences in favour a skill that was more useful in the long run.

Unlike at the beginning of the game, where everybody only had four skill slots and needed use those slots as wisely as possible, alongside a heavy dependence on the quality of their equipment to even survive the first few floors because of their abysmally low stats, sooner or later, things would even out as they reached the game's middle phase; where a player's own skill and abilities slowly eclipsed the importance of equipment.

Not to say that it wasn't important anymore but those who continued depending on their armour and neglected their skills would slowly find themselves being outmatched while those that compensated for weaker equipment with sharper skills would find the playing field being levelled. Only those who kept their equipment up to date, their blades sharp and their wits sharper would stay competitive above the other clearers.

The fact the system seemed to parallel a real life scramble to keep up with progress did not escape his notice and amused the blond to no end.

Of course, he suspected that one good hit from a sufficiently strong player or Boss would probably kill him but now that his Health Points, agility and awareness was enough to keep him moderately safe, his skill slots could finally be devoted to his original plan.

Selecting one of the weapons in his inventory, he materialized a heavy Lochaber axe out of thin air before closing the blue screen with a cheerful tinkle.

Absentmindedly, he tested the edge of the axe before clumsily giving it a few swings, something that his awkward position wasn't really helping. Then again, the blonde was currently too distracted to give it a real go.

"Goshujin-sama?" Someone asked him curiously.

The axe dropped from his hands as Naruto yelped and scurried behind the nearest bush while his spectators merely watched inquisitively.

Unknown to the three of them, someone who had been just about to leave his spot in the shadows and stab the blond in the back before he realized what was happening immediately tucked himself back out of sight, his earlier plans dashed with the sudden presence of reinforcement.

A head of yellow hair poked out from behind the bush after a long awkward moment as he finally realized that the two pink haired girls weren't going anywhere, "Uhm…. Serah, Tamamo. It's nice to see you. Wonderful day for a walk isn't it?"

"You might as well come out and say that." She said slowly, as if talking to a special needs child while Tamamo's amber eyes glittered with silent mirth.

Two blue eyes blinked at them from the bushes, "Can't the two of you uh… pretend that you never saw me?"

"Okay… let's try another way. Did Asuna or Lightning give you any medicine to eat?"

Naruto ignored that, "I was just… relaxing."

She slowly and deliberately looked around the empty field, "Out in the middle of nowhere? Really? Does anyone even know that you're out here alone while everybody else is trying to find the Boss Room?"

The way the blonde went out of his way to avoid her gaze said everything.

Slowly, she lifted one hand and dragged down her own interface, "It's alright, Naruto-sama." She said soothingly, "I'll just message Asuna-nee chan so she can come and get you before you get lost again."

"No!" A yellow and white blur darted out from the bushes and caught her hand before she could send the message, "I mean… I'm not lost. I'm," He hesitated, "… training."

"You mean slacking."

"Please don't tell them." Naruto begged with a wild look in his eyes, "I've been looking through so many reports; Lightning keeps bringing me more and more of those damned things even though I keep telling her that if I see another one; I'll roll up in a ball and die."

Serah had to try very hard not to giggle, "I bet she said that you could die after you finished signing everything."

Naruto made a vaguely disgruntled sound, "I wish I was that lucky. I have this strange suspicion that she'll find a way to keep shoving papers at me even while my coffin is being lowered into the ground."

"Probably….." Serah allowed with a mock thoughtful expression, "Though I'm sure I could be persuaded to forget this. Me and Tamamo wanted to get some training in… and no one seems to have the time to spar with us since they're busy doing what you're not…." The lithe girl in leather armour trailed off with a pointed look at the blond.

The blonde blinked and gave her a measuring look for a while before shrugging with a grudging smile, "Sure. Why not? I might as well exercise since it's obvious that my peaceful afternoon nap just went down the crapper."

Heaving a resigned sigh, the three of them began tracking back to town, pausing only to pick up the blonde's discarded axe before they stopped just inside the limits of the Safe Zone of a small hamlet whose name she did not know to practice

He was just reaching over his shoulders when he heard Serah stop him with a giggle, "Not with a bow, Naruto-sama. I want a match, not waste my time chasing you down while you pelt me with spears."

**Play Yuki Kajiura – Rule the Battlefield **

"Serah," He began with an exasperated expression, "I'm an _Archer._ As the name implies, I use bows. I wouldn't even know how to **start** using a Sword Skill."

Seeing the girl's pleading pout, he rolled his eyes, "How bout I use a spear then?" He offered grudgingly, "I'm pretty fair with one."

"Nope. With a sword." Serah continued, unrelentingly staring at him with those big glittering eyes.

"I thought you wanted to _practice_? You know, simulating a real battle with someone whose skill is higher or equal to yours?"

"Pleeeease?"

Naruto gave her a long hard look, "You just want to try and beat some poor defenceless sod don't you? Only in this case, the poor defenceless sod is me so you can brag."

"I wouldn't call it brag," Serah hedged with a wide grin, "It sounds so evil."

"Isn't it?" Naruto observed dryly.

"Pretty please, Naruto-nii chan?" She fluttered her eyelashes a few times for good measure.

All things considered, Naruto melted pretty fast. Even Kline held out longer, and that was saying something.

"Alright, alright." The blonde muttered grudgingly, "If only because I love the two of you so much."

Serah beamed at the blonde and materialized a pair of harmless wooden swords and another pair of wooden daggers that were handed to Tamamo while the blond stalked over to the wall hedging the hamlet and dropped the bow and quiver of spears slung over his shoulders with a thud.

Turning around, he casually plucked the wooden sword Serah had thrown him out of the air, lamely swinging the sword back and forth like a club as if testing its balance.

Shrugging once again, he sighed heavily, and in Serah's eyes, it sounded like the sigh of a man who was resigning himself to a bruised pride in order to humour two pretty girls.

"Tamamo, can you let me go first?" Serah pleaded with her friend excitedly, "I've never sparred with Naruto-nii before."

Tamamo gave her a long hard look before sighing, "Fine…. But you owe me dessert." The other pink haired girl in the kimono acquiesced with an annoyed pout. Leaning against the wall, she sighed and stowed the wooden daggers away in her obi.

"Whenever you're ready, Naruto-nii!" She called out cheerfully, not entirely expecting the blond to mount a meaningful resistance.

Naruto shrugged.

It was over before either of them knew it.

The blond struck like a damned snake, only he lacked the decency to even give her a hiss as warning.

There was no flash or light that usually accompanied a Sword Skill, though Serah would later figure that it was probably because he didn't need it. The tip of his practice sword hit the base of her blade so hard that her hand was numbed, and then he twisted twice, sending the poor girl reeling as she tried to hold onto her blade before he wrenched it out of her grip and threw it up into the air with a mere flick of the wrist.

She stood there gaping as Naruto calmly plucked her blade out of mid-air and flipped it around so that he was holding it by the sharp end.

SAO's White Archer bowed flamboyantly, "I believe this is yours." He declared with a mischievous grin, handing the sword back to her, pommel first.

"Goshujin-sama!"

Serah blankly stared at the wooden sword in her hand, only faintly hearing Tamamo squealing as she practically flew into a laughing blonde's arms. The lean man caught her easily and spun the girl around, chuckling the entire time before setting her down, "I didn't know you could DO THAT!" She blabbered excitedly.

"You didn't ask." The blonde countered her question modestly, "Plus, underestimating me is usually a very bad idea."

"You said you didn't know how to even START a Sword Skill!"

"I didn't." Naruto agreed, "I never said that I didn't actually know how to use a sword though. They're two very different things." he pointed out with a blasé smile as Serah pouted childishly and stomped her foot, "But you didn't even give me time to get ready!"

He shrugged blithely, "You told me to move anytime I was ready. So I assumed you were as well, besides I don't think those mobs are going to be affected by your pout the way I was."

"My turn! My turn!" Tamamo excitedly cried out as she shooed the petulant Serah away and took up a ready position even before Naruto realized what was happening.

"Go!" Tamamo cheered with a broad grin that never left her lips.

The small and lithe girl almost seemed to blur with speed, her daggers swinging alternately in a furious combo that was barely fended off awkwardly with a comical yelp, something Serah immediately noticed with a vicious smirk.

A bead of sweat ran down his forehead as he tried to counter the overly enthusiastic girl's swift daggers with his slower blade. If he was honest, it had been a while since he held a sword and he had never actually tried to use it against daggers before, but he improvised. Knocking away one dagger with the flat of his blade, he caught the other with his pommel before bending over backwards, dodging a glowing horizontal slash before the Tamamo's other dagger swung in a smooth and continuous barrage that left him no openings to take advantage of. Leaping away from the almost too eager fox girl, Naruto cracked a thin, approving smile at the way Tamamo took advantage of her daggers to create an uninterrupted flow of attacks.

Grunting, he ducked to the side, barely avoiding another dagger thrust, though the edge of her dagger caught on his cloak, lifting it up slightly.

Almost immediately, Naruto's eyes widened in a moment of panic and Serah's sharp blue eyes caught a strange glint of steel half hidden in the shadows of his cloak for the a split second.

It felt like a switch had been thrown as the blonde retaliated, and for the barest instant, it seemed like the noble White Archer had been swallowed whole, by someone that absolutely no qualms about doing whatever needed to be done in order to reach his objective.

Abandoning all pretence of fair play, his foot snapped upwards to kick the knife away from his chest while the off balance Naruto suddenly hurled his blade at Tamamo in an underhand throw.

At first, she thought that the blonde had thrown his sword at Tamamo, but Serah's expectations were dashed as the wooden sword stabbed itself into the ground between Tamamo's ankles and tripped her up, throwing her off her momentum instead of hitting the girl herself, before the blond swept her legs out from underneath her. Flowing the low kick's horizontal momentum, his offhand wrenched the sword out of the ground and he finished the spin by coming full circle, stabbing the blade into the ground an inch away from her neck, pinning it between the blade and his elbow.

The two panting fighters were eerily silent as false adrenaline ran through their veins; their heaving bodies were intertwined on the ground as Naruto pinned the defenceless Tamamo to the ground with his weight, her daggers having been knocked out of her grip by the fall.

Tamamo was the first to break the silence by cracking an incredibly wide grin before she wrapped her arms around the blond's neck, completely ignoring the blade that would have cut a vein open had it been made of real steel, and hugging him tightly, "Goshujin-sama." She said with a strange adoration in her voice as she peered up at him through large liquid pools of amber, "Where did you learn to use a sword?"

The blonde covered his slip up by winking suavely as he carefully let go of the sword and helped her up, though it wasn't exactly necessary given the way she was clinging to him, "That's a secret. Maybe I'll tell you when we get out of this game." Naruto said as he carefully detached the arms wrapped around his neck.

Tamamo pouted before she caught Serah's mischievous look.

The two of them shared a glance before grinning wickedly at the suddenly apprehensive Naruto who was dusting away at his cloak, "What?"

Before he knew it, the two precocious girls had his arms in a steel grip, as they press-ganged him to a bench, "We have time~"

"Tell us, Goshuujin-sama~"

**Play Ivan Torrent – Legacy**

Naruto made a face as they sat him down, "The two of you aren't going to let me go until I break, are you?"

"Nope!" Tamamo chirped cheerfully.

"You can resist us and sing, or you can just sing. For the sake of expediency, you might as well just do the former since you're going to sing anyway.' Serah added with a throaty giggle.

"I love you girls too much." The blond muttered with a resigned sigh.

"We know~"

Rolling his eyes, the blonde surrendered to the inevitable, "It's nothing special. I used to work for a wood carver that made bows and arrows for my grandmother's dojo, however that wasn't all he made. Sometimes, they got orders for bamboo swords or the heavier wooden swords from the city next door and when they were finished, the old man would force me to cycle them over."

The blonde made a discontented sound, "The cheapskate never paid me for that either. Either way, I'd cycle the package to this old kendo dojo that was being run by a husband and wife pair. I don't know if they had children but the husband always looked really happy whenever I came and always insisted I _play _with him for an hour or so and I couldn't really say no after seeing how happy he was."

Naruto scratched his chin in a thoughtful manner as he struggled to remember something, "After beating me into the ground, he always said to me, '_Your weapon isn't just the sword in your hand. Look around carefully, everything that isn't nailed or bolted down can be a weapon in the right hands. Even a concept or an idea can be sharper than any blade._'"

The blonde smiled faintly, "It took me a while to understand what he actually meant, several months of _play _to be precise. In the end, blades can break and arrows can miss but your mind and your body will always be with you. Temper your mind so that you are not confined by what other people consider normal and strengthen your Body so that it can carry out what the Mind desires. If you can do that, you already have the toughest shield and the sharpest blade." Naruto quoted with a vague smile as he thought of the warm couple.

An image of a tall, lean man with greying red hair smiling at him warmly appeared in his mind, the red haired man's arm was wrapped around his wife's waist, a golden haired woman of incredible beauty. Her plaid and homely clothes only served to somehow enhance her regal bearing rather than hinder it.

Then he grimaced as if remembering a phantom pain, "Right after every session with the husband, the wife took over. I don't know if she was a foreigner, but she carried herself with this noble air and formal way of speaking that always reminded me of a queen. For some reason, she was offended by his teachings and insisted on undoing everything he had taught me by_ beating_ proper sword fighting etiquette into me. The husband and I used to joke that her good looks were all wasted on her since she was so strict." He glanced at the two pink haired girls seating on his side and grinned his trademark half grin, "Suffice to say, between the two of them, I ended up with a sword style that was one part pragmatic, one part noble and completely illegal in any competition. Though it's been a while since I've seen either of them…"

"What happened to them?" Tamamo asked quietly.

"I'm not sure." Naruto murmured with some regret, "Between work, Tsunade-baa chan getting drunk all the time, Nii-san starving himself in his room because of his project and the… hospital… I sort of stopped going over there." His lips curled into a faint grin, "One of the first things I'm going to do when I get out of here is buy them a truckload of wooden swords."

Serah opened her mouth to say something, she had never seen the blond look quite so forlorn, but then she realized she didn't know what to say.

Seeing her conflict, Naruto gave her a tender smile that said he appreciated the thought even if she couldn't find the words to express it. Standing up with a slightly slumped over shoulder, the Archer placed a palm on top of their heads and ruffled their hair affectionately, "Don't worry about it."

Abruptly, he turned around to hide his face and pretended to stretch, his hands reaching for the heavens, "Ahh… that was a good workout."

"You have no idea how glad I am that you didn't _**completely **_waste the afternoon." A new voice suddenly noted dryly.

Naruto spun around and went completely ashen, any hint of his earlier moodiness was gone as he squeaked, "A-A-Asuna! Ho-hhhow nice to see you here, how long have you been there?"

The girl in red and white armour gave him a withering look, the two men who stood beside her looked perfectly content to watch Naruto cower from the much smaller girl, "Long enough to get annoyed."

"Oh…. Ah…. Were you looking for me? I accidentally turned off my Private Messaging."

"Really?"

He winced at the glare.

"S-So were you looking for me?"

Asuna glared at him for a bit longer just to let the message sink in before she finally sighed and gestured at the two men shortly, "Kline and Siegfried."

At the girl's curt tone, the red headed man with a short, untidy beard smiled expansively and waved carelessly as his companion the soft spoken, rapier user Siegfried bowed politely, "Yo, Naruto! Been looking for you all over the place."

"Yes we were." Asuna cut in coldly, "For the better part of an hour actually." Another glare, "An hour of looking for you and that idiot, Kirito, which I could have used to soak in the bath."

"Well, you found me, though I have no idea where Kirito is." The blond Archer replied with a nervous glance at the fuming Asuna, "What was so important that the three of you needed to see us so urgently?"

"Nothing much," Kline buffed his nails with a pretentious smirk that didn't suit his thug-like face, mostly for Tamamo and Serah's benefit, "We just found the Boss Room earlier, nothing too hard for an experienced clearer like us you understand. We been alerting the Guilds that there's going to be a strategy meeting tonight on the way here."

"Oh… Oh!"

"Yes, oh!"

Naruto swallowed thickly and hurriedly grabbed Kline and Siegfried, "Looks like we **can't waste any more time**. I'll even go and notify everybody else in person! Let's go!" He cried with a voice filled with false enthusiasm, dragging the two yelping men away.

"What's the body count like?" Naruto hissed at Kline as soon as he was sure that Asuna couldn't hear him.

"None," Kline whispered back while Siegfried grinned, "Though, Takamatsu looked like he was about to cry when Asuna-chan and Lightning-san double teamed him."

"Takamatsu? The tubby accountant in your guild? Username Killah666?"

"That's the one."

"Good, it means that she got her coffee beforehand. Now let's hurry before she can fix that little oversight and add me to the body count as first blood."

Back with Asuna, Serah could hear the KoB's second in command suppress another sigh before a helplessly exasperated smile touched her lips, "That idiot is just like a big kid sometimes."

"You weren't really angry with him were you?" Serah noted from behind her.

The auburn haired girl flicked a strand of hair from her face with an elegant shrug, "I had to do it for Lightning's benefit. If your sister thought no one was seeing it her way, she would have been even more upset, so I pretended to be angry and ran damage control at the same time. There's absolutely nothing wrong if I let him suffer my imaginary wrath for a few days though. If anything, it'll give him some motivation to do something nice in order to make up for it." Asuna smiled at Serah in conspiratorial way, "He doesn't need to know that right?"

"You knew where he was all this time didn't you?" The pink haired girl accused.

The auburn haired girl smirked, "Of course. I just let him think I didn't. Makes it **so** much easier to find him when something really serious crops up."

Serah grunted to herself and muttered under her breath, "Feels like you've got him tamed already."

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing. They are almost gone, shouldn't you go with them?" Serah remarked neutrally.

As Asuna hurried away with a quick apology, Lightning's younger sister rolled her eyes towards the heaven, "If you're going to do something, you better do it quick, Nee-chan."

"Not likely." Tamamo commented lightly.

Goshuujin-sama would be so proud if he knew that she was being generous like this; she didn't mind making some space for another girl in Naruto's bed.

"Lightning won't see it your way until you beat it over her head with a stick."

"True that. How big a stick are we talking about?"

"The explosive kind."

"Gotcha. Let's get back and set things up."

******The Hunter******

As Serah and Tamamo left the little clearing, a figure that had been well hidden in the shadows of the tree, watching them the entire time, shifted from his cramped position and dropped out of his cover.

Blowing one strand of dark hair of his eyes, Kirito smiled a smile that had no humour in it whatsoever, "Well… that was interesting."

******The Hunter******

**1st Floor; City of Beginnings**

**Play Yuki Kajiura – Cynical World **

Kline pulled off his hachimaki and wiped away the sweat beading his temples with a tired sigh, "This is the last stop isn't it? We've gotten to all the Guilds?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "Just MMO Today and the ALC left."

Kline made a face, "I don't mind Thinker, but I'm not very good with the other guy."

"I'm surprised that Thinker didn't kick Kibaou and his group out before the week ended." The normally quiet Siegfried agreed with a rare display of distaste"

"See, even Sieg agrees with me. So…. Can we leave this to you two?"

Naruto chanced a brief glance at Asuna and her cloak of almost visible silence and winced before grabbing the two men who were about to run away, _coincidentally _sticking them between him and Asuna, "Bear with it. I'll owe you dinner."

"And lunch and breakfast." Kline muttered under his breath as the four of them entered the appropriately named Black Iron Castle with a simple nod at the guard.

"Too bad there's no alcohol in this game." Siegfried noted with an amused grin as they were ushered into a small and plain office.

Kline looked around with apprehension, his shoulders sagged in relief that Kibaou wasn't in attendance, "Maybe we won't need to go that far."

"Naruto!" The blonde chuckled as the larger man embraced him warmly.

"Thinker, it's been a while." Naruto gestured to the auburn haired girl and the red haired man with the scraggly beard behind him, "I'm not sure if you've met them before."

"Kline and Siegfried of Fuurinkazan," Thinker's eyes gleamed as he shook their hands energetically, "and Asuna of Knights of the Blood. I must confess that I'm feeling a little stupid for not confirming rumours of your beauty with my own eyes but I haven't had much chance to join the frontlines yet. Too much to manage here, better to let the more enthusiastic ones take the field."

Asuna blushed prettily, the cold silence wafting from her disappearing almost instantly as the tall man let go of her hand, much to the other two male's amusement.

Naruto on the other hand, was busy wondering how she managed to switch gears so quickly.

"Unfortunately, I was a little put off with KoB for the longest time for stealing a good man from us." the older man glanced in Naruto's direction, "I haven't forgiven _you_ for joining KoB instead of coming with me either. My little grudge aside, may I know why are the three of you here?"

"We found the 25h floor Boss Room earlier today, Thinker." Kline said with a simple nod, "We were going around and alerting the Guilds that there was going to be a Strategy meeting later today, so that everybody can pool our info and resources for the Clearing."

"I see…." Thinker said seriously, "There must be a real problem though. Normally we just send messengers or there wouldn't be a reason for the four of you to come and tell me in person."

"Oh there's a problem alright. Of the domestic kind." Siegfried murmured.

Kline snorted much to Thinker's confusion while Naruto stiffened.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that I was getting a little sick of being used as a training dummy by the younger members, Thinker. So I decided to do this myself." Naruto hurriedly cut in before Asuna could say anything, "Being couped up all day either reading reports or training is bad for the health after all."

On the far end of the room, he could hear a low, disapproving, feminine growl.

"At least you can get out. I don't think I've seen the frontlines in months." Thinker remarked with a pout.

"Don't pout, Thinker. It really doesn't suit you. Maybe if you were a decade younger." Naruto commented.

"And a few pounds lighter." A voice noted teasingly from behind them as someone entered the room, "I've been telling him not to do that for ages but he never listens. Maybe he'll listen to you."

Kline immediately began drooling as Asuna restrained him with a sigh the moment a silver haired woman made her presence known. Her amber eyes watched the graceful woman enter the room and smile at them, or more precisely, at the curly haired man sitting behind the desk.

The blonde turned around and smiled at the familiar woman. The way she took the shortest path to stand demurely beside Thinker made it look almost as if the movements had been memorized, "Of course he won't." His smirk widened, "I'm not his wife after all."

Thinker blinked, "Wife? But I'm not married."

"Not yet." Naruto observed with some malice, his fear of a certain auburn haired girl forgotten in favour of some entertainment, as a silent Asuna watched the byplay curiously, "Though I'm fairly sure if you start running now, you might just get away with a little luck."

"Run away? What are you talking about Naruto?" The brown haired man narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Is this some sort of riddle?"

"More like a game." Naruto drawled, "The kind where winning means losing."

Beside Sinker, Yulier's face had been steadily turning a dark crimson as she discretely glared at the mischievous blond.

Thinker gave Asuna and Kline a pointed look, "You see what I have to deal with every time he comes here? He keeps insisting on teasing me, or at least I think he is since I have no idea what he is referring to."

"I didn't even know that the two of you were acquainted." Asuna murmured, still watching Yulier.

Thinker shrugged, "Whether we like it or not, leaders of the big guilds have to get together and hash out the details. Spawn spots, logistics, sharing of information. It's all very technical."

"And tedious." Naruto said mildly, "If you want, you can always go in Heathcliff's place instead of me. I'm sure you'll find it fascinating, Asuna."

"At least we'd have something nicer to look at rather than Kruz's shaking beard."

Asuna gave the Kline a questioning look as Thinker laughed to himself.

"Divine Dragon's Leader. Big hairy man that doesn't seem to like bathing too much." The red headed man murmured in reply.

"That probably applies to more than half of SAO's player base." Asuna noted primly, prompting the Thinker to wink at her mischievously.

"Though... we've actually known each other even before we met in SAO, we just never knew until we saw each other's face again." Thinker explained with a chortle, "We occasionally exchanged ideas on the net and Naruto has helped me with a few other projects before."

"You mean that one where I introduced you to some girls from my college?" Naruto said innocently.

"Eh? What girls?" Thinker blinked as someone's hand clamped down on his shoulder, "What's wrong Yuli?"

"We need to talk."

The poor man shivered as cold eyes stared down at him, automatically blurting out his thoughts although he wasn't sure why, "It was a programming project. The person he introduced to me just _happened _to be female. We didn't have any contact beyond a few emails."

"I love coincidences." the blonde commented with the content grin of a man who was content with a day's hard work, "So why don't we leave you two alone."

"I'll escort you out, if you don't mind, Naruto." Then she glared at the man who had a helplessly confused expression on his face, "We'll talk after that."

"That was really mean of you." Asuna observed as soon as Thinker was safely locked into a room where he would be easily accessible in the near future and she was sure he couldn't hear her.

"Fun though." The blonde replied candidly, he gave the neatly dressed woman an admiring look, "Red really goes with silver doesn't it?"

"I don't quite appreciate you having fun at my expense, Naruto-san." Yulier retorted with a hint of anger to her formal and polite tone, "It's not very good for my heart."

In the real world, she didn't think that she would be able to muster enough courage to chid someone like she had just done, nor did she think that someone as young as Naruto would have been able to talk to her like an equal. Here in this game, money and status no longer mattered the way it had in the real world. As far as the strange blonde was concerned, she was a good friend, and someone to be respected because of what she had _done_, not what she had inherited.

It was strangely refreshing, particularly when they had first met through Thinker.

"Oh please, any idiot with a pair of eyes in his head could probably see that you have feelings for him from the way you look at him, Yulier." Naruto remarked mildly, "I'm just making sure I get a few jabs in before he becomes your exclusive scratching post. By then, I'll probably be too busy feeling sorry for him to tease him." He commented snidely.

Asuna absently noted that Naruto was right. The woman's bright red cheeks actually complimented her silver hair really well, "Besides, it's not my fault you get embarrassed so easily. I'm just helping you practice… for the future of course…."

The bawdy wink he shot her caused Yulier to light up like a particularly red Christmas tree again.

Kline, who had been staring at Yulier in a dumbstruck manner the entire time, immediately exploded, "Likes him?! Yulier!? Bu-But... she's... he's..."

The blonde glanced at his friend and deadpanned, "Ah. Idiot found."

The silver haired woman let out a deep, calming breath as she willed the heat in her cheeks away before fixing the blonde with a disgruntled look, "Help me die of embarrassment maybe." She mumbled under her breath.

"You don't trust me?" Naruto fluttered his eyelashes at her and pouted.

Yulier snorted, "Not very damn likely. You've got more secrets and sharp things hidden under that cloak of yours than a blacksmith's wet dream can shake a stick at."

Then the scowl melted away into a resigned sigh and she bumped his shoulder in a somewhat friendly manner as she escorted them to the exit.

"The day will come when a nice, homely girl realizes that the Archer isn't as funny and as self-assured as he likes to think he is," Yulier regarded him something that almost seemed like an affectionate smile, "then she's going to twist him around her little finger and everybody who has ever heard of the Archer will laugh as he finally falls like every other mortal man."

"Telling the Archer something like that isn't going to make him want to get hitched in a hurry, Yulier." The tall blonde wrapped in a white cloak replied with an easy smile, "Quite the opposite actually, unless you have any further advice?"

Asuna wasn't entirely sure she wanted to acknowledge why the statuesque silver haired woman glanced at her with a throaty snicker.

"I'd probably tell you that if you started running right now, you might even get away." The beautiful woman replied with twinkling eyes as she threw his quote back at him, "Unfortunately, I get the impression that it's already a little too late, luck or no luck."

As the door closed behind Yulier's retreating back, Naruto gave Asuna a bewildered look, "What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure, and why are you talking to me like I've forgiven you?"

"Ah…"

******The Hunter******

"Well, that was pointless." Naruto mumbled grumpily, "I had two bags of peanuts with me at the time and it **still **couldn't last me the entire meeting."

The Strategy meeting had gone about as well as could be expected, which was to say that the Guilds had spent most of their time bickering about how to share the drops by letting them get the Last Hit, who would be the ones to volunteer their members as Scouts, how much Cole they needed to contribute to buy potions and any information they had on the Boss, which amounted to jack.

In other words, it had been pretty much pointless.

Kirito who was walking on his left blew out a tired sigh, "I would Solo that boss if I could."

"You can say that again, everybody wants to get the Last Drop, but nobody is willing to contribute more than necessary." Kline sighed from beside him. Siegfriend and Asuna had already left to brief their members on the outcome of the situation and the date of the next one.

"Can't really blame them. No one wants to face the unknown, though I'm seriously getting annoyed with Kruz and his pretentious group of Divine Earthworms. I can't believe that arrogant jackass had the gall to demand us to fall back once the Boss is nearly dead and let his Guild get the Last Hit."

"They're a new Guild," Kline said sourly, "If they can get the Last Hit, it'll boost their reputation and help them get more members."

Naruto harrumphed while Kirito chuckled, "Cannon fodder you mean. They'll recruit anyone that can hold a stick and shake it in the right direction."

The red head scratched his beard, "It's not like I can't understand his point of view but I'm glad that my guild only has 6 members."

"If every Guild had so few members like yours, we'd still be stuck in that damn meeting trying to get everyone to look straight and stop shouting." The dark haired sword user groused.

"Good point." Kline snorted, "Red tape in an online game. That it's a better alternative to the other option only makes it even more ironic." He glanced at his hunched over friend, "Where are you two going now?"

Naruto scratched his armpit like a gorilla as he tried to remember his schedule with a grunt, "Nothing much… though I need to meet a friend and place a few orders before I go back to HQ to get some stuff ready for tomorrow before I crash. What about you two?"

"Nothing really," Kirito shrugged with a cynical smile, "I don't have as many friends as the two of you to keep me up so I guess I'll go to bed early or something. Might as well get a head start for tomorrow's fiasco. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Fair enough," Naruto allowed as Kirito left them for his rented room on the 20th floor, "Kline?"

"I'm not _that _tired yet. Whose this associate you mentioned?"

"Ashley, you know her?"

"The Seamstress? The most beautiful woman in SAO?" Kline gaped breathlessly as Naruto chortled at the line of drool leaking from his mouth, "Who doesn't?! Wait, how do you even know her?" Kline demanded with a beady look.

His friend cricked his neck as he led the red head to a brighter part of CoB, "Egil put me in contact with her. She was one of the few people who took up Sewing at the time and I needed a steady supplier of good quality bow strings from someone since I couldn't afford to take up Sewing alongside everything else unless I was willing to park my ass in town permanently. She needed to level up her skill, and I needed bow strings so we made a deal. I would bring her the materials and she would make strings to level her Sewing skill up. That's how she got that title."

"Makes sense. Can I come?"

"Uh….." Naruto desperately looked around the empty clearing, "Do I have another option?"

"Nope."

Sighing, the blond shrugged, "Suit yourself. Fair warning though, I'm not going to pick up your pieces."

"What? Is she married?"

"Not exactly."

"So…. Does that mean you can get me a date?"

"I said I'd introduce you to her. I didn't say I would perform a miracle."

"Don't worry, I won't tell Asuna."

"I don't want to know why you think my meeting with Ashley needs to be certified by her." Naruto paused and winced, "On second thought, maybe you should come. At least you can be my witness that I wasn't slacking of somewhere again."

"You're really worried about her aren't you?"

"Not really," Naruto allowed, "I just feel bad making her run around looking for me the whole day."

"She seemed really upset and angry about it."

"I know, and that just makes me feel even guiltier." The blond grumbled as the two of them stepped into a small but neat shop on the first floor.

"Ashley! Are you still here?!"

"Naruto-kun? Is that you?" a busty woman bustled out from the back of the shop, dressed in elegant mauve robes that displayed her feminine curves. Lustrous brown waves hung down one shoulder as the tall woman, taller than either of them, embraced the slightly shorter blonde in a warm hug, "You should have told me you were coming." She scolded him, her deep blue eyes flashed with mock anger, "I would have worn something more appropriate."

The blond smiled weakly, "I was a little rushed today, Ashley, just came from a Strategy meeting in fact."

"25th? That was fast."

Naruto closed his eyes and prepared for the worst, "It was all thanks to my friend, Kline. He and his Guild found it despite all the traps," He gestured at the nearly catatonic man beside him, "One of the best Clearers on the front lines and a man I'm proud to call my friend."

He was fully aware that he was laying it on a little thick, but Kline deserved the credit. Now if only he could get out of this without having to carry Kline all the way back to his house.

The tall woman gasped and her eyes watered beautifully, "Kl-Kline? Is that you?"

The man blinked dumbly as her words registered in his brain. It seemed like the universe was about to finally give him a break and he was determined to grab it with both hands, "Uhmm… yeah? Have we…. met before?"

******The Hunter******

Kirito slowly walked to his room at a leisurely pace, kicking a few stones out of the way in an idle manner as his sharp eyes observed every movement in the small town. It was a quiet evening, though the near constant drizzle probably had something to do with the subdued atmosphere as well.

Giving up his evening stroll as a bad job, the raven haired boy was spun around and promptly bumped into someone.

Someone who hit the ground with a girlish yelp and a splash as she landed squarely in a puddle of mud.

"Oh! I'm sorry, are you alright?" Kirito hurriedly helped the girl up.

"Ye-Yeah, I'm fine, though I can't say the same for my pants." The girl replied with some dry humour as she thanked the swordsman.

Kirito chewed on his lips awkwardly, "I should probably pay for that."

"No, no, it's fine. I'm about to level and change my equipment anyway, so I won't be wearing these for long." She paused and smiled faintly, her full lips curving, "Then again, it's not I'm about to make you compensate me for a bunch of stained pixels."

"Oh…" Still feeling a little guilty, Kirito was thinking about another way he could compensate when a group of boys turned the corner at a dead run, looking around in worry for something.

"Sachi! You alright?"

******The Hunter******

"Naruto?"

"What?" The blond trudging beside a zombie-like Kline replied as soothingly as his bad mood would let him.

"Is that why he picked up the Sewing skill? Because I inspired him to be true to himself?"

"Pretty much, though I didn't know about that particular bit either." Naruto responded blearily, "Men couldn't wear Female equipment, so he decided to make his own. Sewing was rather similar to my Wood Carving in that it wasn't restricted to formulaic creations, just your own imaginations and a suitably levelled skill, so… yeah…."

"He said that he liked me."

"I heard."

"He…. Asked me out on a date."

"Yeah…. I heard that too… Naruto the Miracle Worker actually sounds pretty cool now that I think about it."

"I think…. I think I've realized something."

Naruto paused and grimaced as he prepared for the inevitable explosion, "Look, I'm sorry it didn't work out. There's plenty of other fis-"

"- I've discovered that all the love I need in this world can be discovered in men wearing skirts."

"….That's some wonderful logic you got there. On a completely unrelated note, I have some maid uniforms I need to burn with extreme prejudice."

******The Hunter******

**Play ****Nier – Ashes to Dreams – Nuadhaich**

Naruto let loose a gigantic yawn as he trudged up a flight of stairs, feeling deep weariness in his non-existent bones. Even though the sun had just barely set, because he had spent the entire day running around, the blond felt like he had spent the entire day training, and he was rather prejudiced against unnecessary exercise.

"Goshuujin-sama!"

He blinked dumbly, "Tamamo? Is something wrong? Why aren't you at home?" He asked with some concern.

The bouncing fox girl wrapped one arm around his as she fell in step beside him, not very subtly trying to steer him to the courtyard, "Why were you so late?"

"I was going to go home soon; I just needed to make sure I had all the data for tomorrow's meeting..." Naruto stopped short and froze, "I SOUND LIKE I'M WORKING! AND I'M NOT EVEN GETTING PAID!"

The startled girl on his elbow jumped at his sudden screech of pain and loss, "Go-Goshuujin-sama? What's wrong?"

The blond man seemed to snap out of his ranting and smiled faintly, "I'm alright. Just needed to release some stress." He cocked his head as the two of them passed under a familiar looking arch way, "Why are you leading me to courtyard?"

"To talk about something!"

Naruto cocked an eyebrow as he noticed Serah standing on the far side of the clearing, half hidden by the shadow of the cloisters, fidgeting noticeably as she cast her eyes around the not so empty clearing, "Naruto-nii!"

"Ah… can this wait, Serah?" Naruto asked plaintively as he pulled his elbow out of Tamamo's grip, "It's been a really long day and I think I don't think I can win a fight with my pillow at the moment, not that I would want to, after a bite to eat."

After dinner, but not before he did some grovelling for Asuna. A lot of grovelling, he added to himself mentally.

"N-No!" Nauto stopped abruptly as the girl blocked the exit with her arms spread eagled, "This is really important!"

The blonde sighed in resignation, "Alright, alright. How can I help you?"

"Well… not me exactly…" Naruto arched one eyebrow at her strangely high pitched voice.

"You're nervous." He observed, "Is there a trap somewhere here?"

Serah blinked and gaped at the blond, "Yes! I mean.. No! I mean… **Why haven't you confessed to Lightning**?!"

This time, it was his turn to blink stupidly as the pink haired girl went completely white at blurting it out accidentally, "I…** what**?"

"**HYPOTHETHICALLY!" **

"Okay….? Why haven't I _hypothetically _confessed to her? Is that what you wanted to ask?" Seeing Serah nod her head vigorously with a beaming smile, Naruto continued with another wary look around the courtyard, "Well… I don't really think we're _that _close yet. Not to mention, I doubt she is even remotely attracted me."

"Let's say she is at least, just a bit, a teeny weeny bit attracted to you, and let's say YOU are attracted to her as well," Seeing his eyebrow arch again, she hurriedly added, "Hypothetically of course, would you confess?"

"I suppose I would," Naruto agreed slowly, "But there really isn't any point to that now."

The stunned girl stared at him for a long searching moment, "Why not?"

"Because…." Naruto stared into the shadows of the cloisters ringing the courtyard again with a wary eye to see if he wasn't being set up, "I predict that the longest time we can stay in the game is 5 years at best. Beyond that, I simply do not see the government; much less our families paying through the nose to keep our comatose bodies cared for, so I rather deal with that before trying to romance somebody. Besides, a relationship based on fighting for your lives together generally isn't the best place to start. If we get out of here, then I certainly wouldn't mind trying to see if our hypothetical relationship would still work without a semi-permanent death sentence hanging above our heads."

"But… But you fight beside her. It's because you fight beside her, that you would trust her even without having to fight for your life, right? Hypothetically, that is."

Naruto sighed as he gently led to the younger girl to a bench where they could sit down, "It's not that simple. As far as I'm concerned, if we keep things between us neutral and friendly, I can protect her from being hurt. This hypothetical romance isn't going to work."

"Okay... that's the official reason," Serah remarked with a shrewd look, "What's the real one?"

The blond man seemed to struggle for a while and a look of utter conflict flashed across his face before he buried it in his palms, "She's like a queen to me." He finally groaned from between his fingers.

"Okay…. So why not? You think of her as a queen, that means you think there's no other girl that can match her right?"

He blond chuckled bitterly, "Like I said, it's not that simple. Lightning getting married is almost too mundane for me to imagine." Naruto said flatly, "I can't think of anybody who would be able to match her. Any simple man, especially one like me," He added, "would only slow her down and stop her from being able to do what she wants."

Naruto smiled vaguely as he suddenly had this image of the proud woman conquering the Parliament in a pair of pinstriped coat and slacks, "If Lightning were to be with someone, she **deserves** to be with someone who can stand up to her or someone that could help her go even higher. Hypothetically speaking of course."

"That's not very fair..." Serah mumbled under her breath, "That's just how you look at her. You're not even thinking of her feelings; you're just putting her on a pedestal like everyone else. She can get tired from being so strong all the time as well."

"Probably." The blonde admitted frankly, "If we lived for the rest of our life in SAO, I'm certainly not humble enough to say that I would not be able to equal her in time if physical skills were all that mattered, but we aren't going to live in SAO forever. We are going back to the real world where combat prowess is all that matters. Once there, she'll go back to being the heiress of a rich family or something while I go back to being the adopted orphan of a failing dojo. Something like that just isn't going to work in the long run." Naruto noted solemnly.

"Are you calling my sister a prostitute?" She suddenly said with a certain edge to her voice.

Naruto frantically shook his head, "Wha? **Of course NOT!"**

Cold blue eyes narrowed at him through wavy pink locks, and in that moment, Naruto knew that no one would be able to mistake Serah for anything else other than Lightning's sister, "Then why are you saying that she would care about your money?" Serah sniffed disdainfully, "Not only that, you seem strangely content to stay the '_adopted orphan of a failing dojo' _as well."

Naruto sighed helplessly, "I know you're right. I don't know what will happen or what I'll do after we get out of here, but I cannot ask Lightning to wait," Assuming she is willing to wait after what I will do to her and everybody else, he noted to himself mentally, "until I can equal her. Nor will my pride let me ask for her hand before I have something backing my name other than adopted orphan."

"So this is all about your pride?" Her eyes flared passionately again, "You would let her suffer just because of your pride?"

The blonde winced at her incredulous tone, "I'm not sure why you're being so adamant about this. This whole discussion is just hypothetical anyway; I'm pretty damn sure Lightning doesn't actually have the requisite affection for me in order for this argument to become reality."

"Eclair." She said suddenly.

"What?"

"Don't call her Lightning. Her name is Eclair."

Naruto gave her a long look before nodding slowly, "I don't think she's going to be pleased that you told me her real name."

"Better than being a proud coward."

Naruto winced again at her pointed words.

"How old are you anyway? You sound a lot like you've planned all this out already."

He shrugged weakly, "I'm nineteen this year."

"Nineteen!?" Serah exclaimed loudly, "You're only one year older than Eclair!"

The blonde smiled vaguely, "I had a lot time to think about the kind of family I wanted, since everybody seemed determined to reject an orphan at the time, I figured the only way I was going to get a proper family was if I made one myself."

"Ah..."

Serah watched the blonde wander off again, shoulders sagging heavily, with a certain sense of pity that she knew would only offend him if she said anything about it.

******The Hunter******

She leaned back onto the comfortable bench after a lengthy silence and sighed loudly, "You heard what he said, Nee-chan. What are you going to do about it?"

There was a thud behind the door before it swung open to show Lightning standing there, rubbing her knee as if she had banged it on something, resolutely avoiding her little sister's gaze with flushed cheeks, "Wh-who said I have to do anything?"

Serah got up and clasped her hands together, "True." She agreed, "I guess it's not like you to respond to something pitiful like that. It was funny wasn't it? Hearing struggle him with his pride like that."

"Funny?!" Serah hid a smirk as her sister's temper flared, "So what if it was pitiful? There's nothing wrong with being simple and... straightforward... and...mumble... mumble..."

She trailed off and began mumbling something indistinct in the general vicinity of her boots.

"Of course not." Serah agreed again, and began skipping away, leaving her dumbfounded sister behind while she hummed a thoughtful tune to herself.

"Check. Your move, Nee-chan."

******The Hunter******

**Kur0: I don't think I've ever heard my brother sound this snarky or work this fast. That pain killer must really be doing a number on him and his muse. **


	9. The Twenty Fifth Floor

**The Hunter Chapter 9**

**The Twenty Fifth Floor**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic.

This is a review from NineDaysGrace, a fellow writer on the site and the person who wrote Unwavering Sky's Lime; he's a lazy sort of bastard with an unhealthy fascination for blonde anime women, corpses and Asuna Yuuki, in that order.

_Let's get the basics out of the way first, this fic is set in Sword Art Online, where the basics of everything boils down to SWORDS, then along comes White Archer._

_Now let's look at EMIYA, the ORIGINAL Archer. Despite being called Archer and using a bow, his real forte lies in SWORDS. This chapter reveals that White Archer is hiding something under his cloak; the same way you foreshadowed his BOW hiding under his cloak in the first chapter seems to parallel the hazy connection Archer has to his Swords._

_The way I see it, the Bow can be likened as a smokescreen, for both of them, or at least I think so. It hides their true offensive capabilities, or at least I hope that is what you're hinting at. Either way, I'm certain that you have something AWESOME in store for us. A chant maybe? *Wink wink*_

_Another thing I wanted to point out, I'm not absolutely sure yet since we only have eight chapters but let's look at EMIYA, in terms of morality, we can call him the Red Archer. He is pragmatic and has no problems sacrificing people for the greater good/objective._

_Then we have Blue Archer (gabriel blessing's Hill of Blades) a more moderate version of the original and somewhat more noble._

_I'm just guessing here, but are you making us a third one? The White Archer. Who is noble or at least seems so because from what we've seen so far, he certainly seems like a more pure version of Red Archer. He is willing to sacrifice people, but it's like he won't do it unless he has a damn good reason to._

_Red Archer, Blue Archer and White Archer._  
_Damn, I'm feeling so excited to see what you'll give us in the future, so I apologize if this review was TLDR._

*******Personal Note from Kishi******

NineDaysGrace; I don't think I've seen anybody root through my works and analyse our work to this extent, mind you, it's not 100% correct, but the theme was spot on, that's why I'm putting your review up as my personal _salute _to you.

In fact, we're going to start doing this from now on, anyone who manages do the same will get a personal salute from us.

The reason for this is several fold; it will make it easier for readers to understand what drives our characters, it might give our readers more incentive to read rather than skim (_assuming you think of us as something __**more **__than a pair of idiots that exist solely to crap out entertainment for you and you like finding little nuggets of information we slip into our works_), it will also help us portray our characters consistently the way we planned, and you can tell us if we failed in that regard.

(We have, like, five different limes/lemons for Asuna and various other girls from him stored away and haven't been able to use them yet…)

**Soundtrack List**

GReeeeN – Tobira

Rie Tanaka – Mizu no Akashi

Home Made Kazoku – Shooting Star

Skillet – Dead Inside

Masami Mitsuoka – Last Cross

John Dreamer – Brotherhood

******The Hunter******

**Play GReeeeN –Tobira **

Kirito blinked rapidly as every eyeball in the courtyard swivelled around the stare at him. He and his squad had just returned from another scouting mission when they ran smack dab right into a large group of almost frenzied looking women that turned to stare at them almost simultaneously like a monster with a thousand eyes.

Beside him, Kline, the other members of Furinkazan wisely froze and threw their hands up into the air in surrender and gingerly backed away from the stares, as if it would stop the large group of silently staring women from biting their heads off.

"Takamatsu… did you eat something important **again**?" As the expectant stares turned into accusing ones, the tall and largest member of Furinkazan rumbled with a heavy sigh, "You know I told you to lock your door at night."

"I... maybe?" The stout man whimpered, "Give me a break, Moritaka, there are times… when everything seems so fuzzy after I get hungry."

"No, that's just your stomach overruling your brain." Kline calmly replied as the grumbling horde of women waiting at gates of the 25th floor's main gate gradually looked away from them with a certain sense of disappointment, "They're waiting for Argo and her team."

The large and dark skinned man in Japanese styled armour whose name was Moritaka gazed at his Guild Leader with some surprise, "How did _you_ know that?"

"They were writing about it in the Ribbon Daily. Something about a treasure."

"You read a women's only magazine?" Kirito noted with some amusement.

"It passed the time," Kline shrugged, "And it gave me something to talk about with Ashley."

Every single female there seemed similarly on edge as every available pair of shining eyeballs were fervently ignoring the group of men standing there like idiots as they stared at the Gate.

As the boys edged away from the accusing glares, Kline glanced around the courtyard and jerked his chin in the direction of the Inn where a familiar blond was leaning against the wall with an exasperated but amused half grin and his arms folded around his chest, "Look, Naruto is there, he might know something."

Naruto gave them a brief nod as they gingerly tip toed towards him, "Hey, Naruto," Takamatsu said in a stage whisper as if he was afraid of riling up the group of women, "What's going on? Was there an event of some sort?" The person asked with his usual cheerfulness even though Kirito was fairly certain they had all just escaped a certain death.

"I'll let you know when I get a clue. I was on my way out for training when I found them gathered around the Gates like a group of ravenous tigers." The blond grinned boyishly, "It seemed interesting, so I stayed."

"Why am I not surprised that you skipped training just because something seemed _fun_?" Kirito replied dryly.

Naruto shrugged casually with a helpless smile.

"Something feels off." Moritaka's shaggy black hair bounced as he nodded, "There's a buzz of anticipation in the air."

"What gave you that idea?" Naruto replied mildly as he looked around, "Was it the way everyone keeps eyeballing the gate or the fact that nearly everybody who considers herself female is here?"

The courtyard they were in was surprisingly busy. That wasn't unusual in and of itself, but as his eyes skimmed the crowd, it almost seemed like the entire female population of Sword Art Online had gathered here for some reason, though if Kirito looked carefully, there were quite a few males on the outskirts of the courtyard as well, milling around with confused expressions that he was quite sure adorned his own face as well, "I see Asuna is here as well."

Catching her gaze, Naruto beckoned her to join them with a wave and a grin.

"What is it?" The short girl asked with an uncharacteristic shortness as she reluctantly shifted her gaze from the Gate to the group of men, "I'm busy."

Kline leaned forward with an interested gleam, "What is this treasure all of you are waiting for?"

"It's a secret."

"I can't help but feel that I'm missing a part of this conversation." The blonde noted slowly, as he shifted away from the edgy and fidgeting girl. Her hair was wild and unkempt unlike the way she usually had it and the wild, nearly desperate look in her eyes wasn't helping, "What treasure is this?"

She reminded him of a feral, savage chipmunk.

"We found _IT." _She hissed again, "The legendary item!"

At that, Naruto dismissed his unkind thoughts and leaned forward with a curious look in his eyes, "Does this legendary item have a name?"

"Shhh! Somebody might be listening!" She hissed desperately, her eyes whirled around the crowded and yet strangely quiet courtyard as almost everyone there seemed to be holding their breaths with an air of impatience.

Naruto very slowly and very deliberately threw a sweeping glance around the crowded clearing before looking Asuna in the eye, "Don't worry," He said seriously, "I'm sure that everyone else gathered here are too busy watching the flowers grow instead of listening in on us. After all, it can only be coincidence that almost every girl in SAO is gathered here at the same time."

Asuna wrinkled her nose before making a sheepish face, "We do look a little desperate don't we?"

"Just a little." Kirito offered with a half-smile.

The brown haired girl chuckled weakly, "Someone's been spreading rumours about a special fruit that has certain qualities, but confirmation only came this morning when Argo found it. She wouldn't tell anybody where its exact location was, but offered to bring it to us."

"That would certainly explain a few things." Naruto noted, "What are these qualities you keep talking about?"

"Why don't you stay and watch?" Asuna said as she purposefully dangled the information out of their reach with a cheerful wink, "If I'm feeling generous and if you ask nicely, I might even share."

Before the embarrassed man could reply, a rumbling cheer that started off as a whisper slowly began to rise from the females until it was a roar. Glancing at the archway that marked the entrance to the frontlines himself, the blond arched one eyebrow as a group of girls marched through the gates triumphantly.

Between the six of them, two of which was Tamamo and Argo, they carried a large brown crate, the kind that the Guilds usually used to temporarily store potions and crystals for Boss Fights.

His eyebrows rose even higher as he realized that this one was filled with some sort of fruit that was shaped like bananas, but that was where all similarities ended. He might have been disconnected from reality for half a year, but he was quite certain that bananas didn't have poisonous green skin and dangerous looking crimson spots.

Almost reverently, Argo silently dipped her hands into the crate and began handing them to the group of solemnly waiting females while the males just watched, half curious and half afraid that they were watching the beginnings of a cult. Naruto certainly didn't blame them, he felt the same.

When the crate had been emptied, leaving quite a few disappointed females sobbing their eyes out while their compatriots all stood there, silently clutching at the bananas like some sort of holy item, Argo spoke solemnly, "The day has come. After much searching, we have finally found it."

"And they **still** don't have the decency to say what _it _is." Naruto grumbled under his breath as the girls and women nodded as one.

"She's hamming it up pretty nicely though." Kirito noted calmly.

Naruto held up a small crystal and began recording. At the strange stares from his friends, the blond shrugged, "Just in case I need some blackmail on her, she's going to regret all this theatricality in the morning, and I figured I should at least profit from it."

"With friends like you, who needs enemies." Kline muttered.

"We just have a special working relationship that revolves around blackmailing each other and large amounts of Col and sweets." The blond countered with a miffed expression as he kept recording the group of insane women.

"This is a gift, not a right. Something to be enjoyed leisurely, do not make the mistake of** gulping** it down for doing that would be the height of indignity." Her dark eyes roved around the courtyard one more time, impressing upon her…. recruits the importance of what she was saying, "Now…. We eat. Lick, don't bite. Not yet."

As one, the bananas were painstakingly peeled with the utmost care, revealing a cream white centre with brown splotches.

The dreamy sighs came like a tidal wave as a sweet scent began to waft around the courtyard and a few men had to secretly adjust their suddenly tight pants.

Cute little pink tongues began to dart out, taking hesitant little licks at the strange looking fruit before a familiar, almost long forgotten sensation of such creamy sweetness that was reminiscent of vanilla ice cream flooded their brains, and then the licks got more insistent and hurried. Their oral organs lavished the splotchy banana with saliva as shivers ran down their backs. Some of the more impatient ones even began to push the splotchy fruit into their oral orifice, just to let its flavour soak.

And quite suddenly, the confused looks on every male present changed into a complicated and uncomfortable one, one that Naruto was sure mirrored his own.

Frozen to the spot, they could only watch as the women slurped on this fruit. And it was as if they were stuck in a brutally futile cycle, the longer they watched the women pump that fruit in their mouths, the more uncomfortable the men got.

Some of the younger and inexperienced ones, and Naruto included Kirito in that category, promptly burned a bright crimson and immediately high tailed it out of the clearing before it could go any further.

As if some sort of silent signal that the men could not interpret was passed around, the females opened their mouths wide.

And crunched on the fruit.

The euphoric moan was almost orgasmic as a deep chocolate flavoured liquid burst from the fruit.

There was a slight pause before almost every man in the courtyard winced and crossed their legs as one, looking like they had swallowed a rather large lemon.

The rest just looked like they had the ride of their lives and moaned in satisfaction as a completely ashen Naruto stowed his recording crystal back into his cape, mentally swearing to bury the damned thing in the deepest hole he could find.

He didn't know it yet, but given the lack of females in Sword Art Online and how backed up everyone was, he was about to become an overnight billionaire as well as the first person to create the closest equivalent of porn in Sword Art Online.

His boss, Jiraiya would be so proud.

"Well…. That was _interesting_," Kline coughed uncomfortably, "On a completely unrelated note, I'm ah… just going to go back home for a few hours… or days. I have a lot of uh… energy… to burn. Excuse me."

Beside him, the tall and dark skinned man whose name Naruto couldn't remember had went completely white before fainting with a strangled, "Too much… to handle."

A rather red faced Siegel nodded frantically, politely stepped over his unconscious comrade and ran after a retreating Kline who was joined by quite a few shame-faced men, mumbling something about a backed up river.

Naruto buried his face in his hands and sighed heavily. A rather understandable reaction given that Tamamo had been one of the girls he had been watching the entire time. Seeing and hearing her moan like that was not in his agenda and Naruto would have been quite happy to keep it off his schedule for the next century or so.

Takamatsu who was propped up on the wall with a rather euphoric expression gave him a half curious, half dazed look, "Why the heavy sigh, Naruto?"

"I was just wondering."

"About?"

"About how much the nurses who watch our bodies back in reality get paid. I get the feeling that a lot of them are going to be on overtime doing laundry today."

"Ah." Takamatsu slurred, "It'll be good for the economy."

Naruto snorted in disgust and threw his hands up in resignation, "Your grasp of the obvious is inspiring, Takamatsu, now put your tongue back in your head before someone trips on it."

As the blonde stalked away, Takamatsu faintly heard the blond muttering something about getting new pair of pants, but he wasn't too sure.

******The Hunter******

**Play Rie Tanaka – Mizu no Akashi**

Sighing to himself as he exited his room, Naruto tightened the leather belt on his new pair of clean pants and trudged to the kitchen, feeling a desperate need for something to drown his thoughts, and since you couldn't find alcoholic drinks in Sword Art Online, Naruto had a sinking suspicion that he was about to have a rather sleepless night.

As he reached the little stove, the grumpy blonde's eyebrow rose at the already steaming pot of coffee, "What the?"

"So, was it interesting?"

Naruto yelped and whirled around to stare at the girl behind him, "Wha- what? Serah!? Why are you here?!"

"Lightning is here too." The pink haired woman remarked dryly as the taller sister joined her at the dining table.

The blond spluttered, "That still doesn't tell me why are you BOTH here? I thought all the girls were on the 25th floor."

"Lightning wouldn't let me go, and since the KoB headquarters is currently on the 25th floor, she figured that this was the best place to cage me up in." Serah petulantly replied with a pointed look at her expressionless sister, "She thinks it's demeaning, all of them mooning around like love sick girls over an ice cream sundae. I don't blame them though, we've been in here for nearly half a year and I would KILL for a good dose of artificial sugar, or at least something that genuinely tastes like it. Especially since it looks like you can only get those fruits from a secret tree on the 25th floor. To make it even worse, it only bears one fruit every fortnight."

"Remind me to get you a nice present." Naruto nodded gratefully in the pink haired woman's direction, "Seeing Tamamo there was bad enough."

Lightning flashed him a faint smile before quickly turning her eyes back to stare resolutely at her own cup of tea.

"With all due respect, what I do on my own time should be my own decision." Serah said acidly, "Not yours or my sister's no matter how much both of you would like it to be."

"Why is it that every time someone says '_With all due respect_' they really mean '_Kiss my ass'_?" Naruto asked rhetorically as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

As the sun began to set outside the window and the three of them sat around the table, having an almost normal conversation, the blond felt a gentle warmth wash over him, as if a breeze was trying to lift his flagging spirit. He hid a bitter smile behind his cup; it was almost like he had a family again.

"Not that that would be a bad thing," The girl said with a cheeky smile, "It's a fairly nice ass, not my taste of course, but how was it? The girls have been planning this forever; it was all they talked about recently. Must have been a pretty interesting scene right? We heard you practically stomping around the house like a rampaging bull and you didn't even realize we were here." Serah commented with a coy smirk.

The blond shot her a horrified glance, "I am NOT talking about this OR my ass with you, Serah. Especially not while Lightning is here!"

"And very obviously listening while she pretends not to be."

The taller woman's ears went bright red at Serah's dry remark.

"Awww… don't be shy," Serah wheedled with a teasing smile, "Just think of me as a one of the guys."

"I always did."

"Do you WANT a crotchful of boiling coffee? It might help the swelling." Serah paused briefly to glare at the disturbed blond, "And stop looking at me like that, I'm 16 and I'm French, I _know _what _that _means."

"I don't care _how _old you_ think_ you are, because as far as things go, dumping boiling liquid on my family jewels is a little less painful than talking about this particular topic with someone who is like my little sister or going into battle with an open fly." Naruto noted with a strangled smile.

"Gaah! It's like you don't react to girls at all!" Serah threw her hands up in frustration before she paused to think, "Wait, maybe that's the problem, you ARE straight right?"

Naruto hesitated a moment to glance at Lightning who had her eyes determinedly stuck on the table's grain. For some strange reason, Lightning seemed hell-bent on avoiding his gaze.

"….My unusually large collection of girl on girl videos dictates that I answer yes. Now, can you stop teasing your sister and me?"

The blond wondered if Lightning could be persuaded to lead the teams that went out at night; her glowing ears would be quite the asset.

Serah smiled like the cat that had just gotten locked in the dairy.

"Why should I? Other people might be too scared to approach the two of you," She said smugly, "But I happen to be in the unique position of knowing that both of you are really big softies on the inside. You just need someone to help you break out of your shells. Preferably a persistent someone who isn't afraid of your glares and owns a really big hammer."

"You mean someone shameless like you." Lightning noted.

Serah beamed.

"Good advice." The blond deadpanned, "I'll remember that the next time I need to send somebody with a hard head out on a mission with impossible odds."

"Which is about twice a day on average. Five tomorrow." Lightning agreed dryly.

"Oh yea, Boss Fight. Congratulations on getting a prime seat, Serah. I suggest you bring some perfume, staring down the Boss's gaping maw tends to stink up the clothes a little."

Serah shot both of them horrified looks; they both looked so serious and sincere that she couldn't tell if it was a joke, "The two of you are so mean! I'm going to find Tamamo, at least she understands me!"

The two older ones shared a glance before they began chuckling after the younger sister had stomped her foot childishly and ran out of the cottage, weeping crocodile tears, "That was really mean of us, bullying a sweet girl like her."

"Save your sympathy, she deserved it." Lightning retorted with an affectionate smile as she stared after the girl, "She is sweet, but sometimes, if too many things go her way, she tends to get a little snobby and demanding. So a little poke now and then will do her good."

"I guess. As far as I'm concerned, she can be as snobbish as she wants, she can be as spoilt as she wants, as long as she is happy." For a moment, as the setting sun shone through the window just right, Lightning thought she saw a flash of jealousy cross the blond's expression, but it was gone by the time she managed to look closer. Instead, the whiskered man was leaning in his chair with a completely peaceful expression, "Even if this body is engulfed by the flames and burns to ashes, then at least let me use it one last time to protect them from the searing blaze and bring them home before I fade away."

"You'd make a pretty terrible father then." Lightning observed with a small smirk but there was no sting in her words, "No child would want to grow up without a father."

"That's what the non-existent wife is for." Naruto waggled his eyebrows at the pink haired woman, causing her to laugh; a rich and warm sound that echoed in the empty cottage.

Wiping away tears of laughter, Éclair sighed softly and gazed at the blond man who was resting in his chair, his eyes closed as if he was sleeping, golden bangs fell across his forehead while his long pony tail was curled around his neck like a scarf.

Without the White cloak that always enshrouded his features, giving him a certain sense of implacable intimidation that was as mysterious as the moon, the blond napping on the armchair looked like any other man, dressed in a plain pair of orange shirt and brown trousers.

Weak and easily broken.

"Naruto?" She asked with a strangely soft tone that caused his ears to perk up.

"Yes, Eclair?"

"What… _happened_ to your sister?"

******The Hunter******

**Play Home Made Kazoku – Shooting Star**

The older man made a face as the person he had been waiting for finally arrived. Shaking the hood of his cloak back to reveal a head of golden hair, blue eyes swept around the small diner until the old man caught his eye.

"I'm glad you finally made it." The polite old man muttered as the blond approached him.

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose, "So am I, how is she?"

The grey haired man smiled affectionately, "Just about coming down from her sugar crush. I let her sleep on the couch since she had a headache. I would have let her stay the night," He shrugged helplessly, "but my home is on the first floor. I can't really carry her that far and I don't think the couch is all that comfortable."

"She wouldn't have minded. In fact, she'll probably feel bad for giving you so much trouble the moment her sanity returns, Roan."

The middle aged man who ran a small ramen store on the 25th floor laughed a deep belly laugh, "It's alright, Joker. It's good to see her looking so happy, even if it WAS from a sugar high. I'm still curious though, where did she get so much sugar? She tried to tell me, but I couldn't really understand her through the babbling."

"Some sort of fruit." Naruto mumbled with embarrassment, "They found it and it apparently tastes like vanilla ice cream and chocolate."

"I didn't think an ice cream sundae had _that _much sugar."

"This wasn't exactly a normal ice cream. I'm going to have to talk to Argo about regulating that fruit if it can do something like this to Asuna." Naruto mourned with a sigh at the thought of even more work, "Do you know where Tamamo went?"

"The nice pink haired girl that's always following you around?"

"Yeah…. That one."

"She was here with Asuna-chan for a while before she went off with the other pinkie, the cheeky one. Said something about a sleepover." Roan observed good naturedly.

Naruto made a face, "If they gave you any trouble, I'll pay for your trouble."

"Nonsense." Roan brushed away the offered Col, "It did me good trying to keep up with them. It's the least I can do since I can't help out with the Clearing."

"Of course you do, you make great food for us." The blonde commented with a soft smile as he followed the man to the back of the store.

"You can cook as well, so I don't really know why you insist on eating at this little shop."

"Ah…. My brand of cooking more often than not involves a lot of explosions of the literal kind rather than the edible kind." The long haired blond noted, "You should know, you taught me most of it."

"I certainly don't remember teaching you how to mix gunpowder with chilli." Roan chuckled lightly as he pushed open the door. Inside the room, Naruto could faintly see a something white and red curled up into a warm bundle, "And here she is. Your sleeping princess."

"The way she curls up into a ball makes her look a lot more like a chipmunk more than a princess." Naruto dryly commented as he bent down to shake her shoulder softly, "Asuna, wake up. C'mon, it's late."

"Mrrgh…. Ruto. Voice. Too loud." The bundle whimpered.

Rolling his eyes, the blonde gently looped her arms securely around his neck and slipped his hands under her. With a slight huff, he lifted the girl as gently as he could, though not gently enough if her complaining whines meant anything.

"Thanks again, Roan." The blonde smiled sheepishly as her head lolled on his shoulder, "I'll make sure she drops by and apologizes tomorrow."

"You can both come. I'll save something special for the two of you." Roan smirked as he led the boy back out, "Even back then, young people as polite and kind as the two of you are a rarity, much less here where nobody would care about some useless old fart that can't contribute to the Clearing, so it's a pleasure to have you around."

Naruto smiled thinly, the old man was nice, but he had some issues. Japanese traditional culture heavily emphasized everybody's role in making things work and those who didn't fit in were shunned. As far as he could tell, the man was some sort of office worker in real life and had bought the game for his child. Why he was here instead of his child, Naruto didn't ask. If Roan wanted to tell him, he would in his own time but now that he was here, he was desperate to try and contribute in some way although few if anybody would insist on making the middle aged man go through the rigours of combat.

Awkwardly bowing again, Naruto promised to come with Asuna in the morning before he left the old man and his store, walking at a pace that could only be called leisurely so that he didn't move the _princess_ sleeping in his arms any more than necessary.

"Ruuto…." The girl slurred quietly, her soft breath tickled his ears.

"Hmm?"

Her eyes were open and unfocused as she starred at the dark sky above them, "Stars…." She said childishly.

The blond looked up and smiled faintly. Even though the sky above them twinkled with thousands of stars, he knew that it was just an illusion that hid the underbelly of the 26th floor, "Yeah. Stars. The real ones look much nicer though."

"You like stars?"

"When I have time I guess. Why? Do I look like the kind to watch the stars?"

"Papa, Mama and Nii-san don't like stars."

Naruto hmmed uncomfortably as the girl seemed to shake a little in his arms, "You were bright enough for them."

The girl chuckled weakly and spoke a little clearer, "All men always seem to operate under two universal assumptions; that women are attracted to them and that they aren't idiots. Why don't you?"

"Then I'm either not like most men or I'm not a man at all and last I checked, I was still fulfilled all the qualifications of a biological male."

"Why?" She repeated again with a childish pout.

The blond rolled his eyes as he stepped through the portal to the seventh floor, "I guess you could say I have a different perspective to most people."

"Is that why you don't like talking?" Asuna rambled blearily, "My family doesn't either. They just order me."

"Ah…. a little bit of violence is always good to clear the air, in fact, that's the way it usually works with guys." Naruto noted dryly, "But women, particularly Serah, seem to have an alarming tendency to think about things, then talk it, then think some more. No offense Asuna, but give me somebody to stab any day."

"Hey, some of the best ideas came from thinking." The auburn haired girl retorted with a sleepy smile, "You should try listening."

"I like listening just fine, but women have too many ideas, and too many ideas translate to even more talking… and yeah." Naruto finished lamely as he nudged the door open with a knee.

The girl on his chest breathed in deeply and let out a contented sigh, "It smells so familiar. Like wood and clean clothes."

"You haven't been here in a while, both you and Kirito shifted closer to the frontlines so you could save time, remember?" He gently reminded the girl as he entered the room that used to be hers.

"Why didn't you come with us?"

The blond gently laid her down on bed before shrugging, "It's not as important to me I guess." Laying one hand on her cheek, he ran one finger along her cheekbone, "It's time to sleep Asuna, we have a long day tomorrow and you already have one appointment you can't miss."

"You don't want to talk to me again…." The girl whimpered.

The blond froze before he ran one hand through his blond locks in resignation, "What do you want to talk about Asuna? I'll stay here until you sleep."

She patted the bed with a wide grin, "Here."

"Ah…. That would be a… bad idea." He averted his eyes, "Especially after this afternoon."

Asuna pouted and huffed cutely as she rolled around in bed, presenting her back to him.

"Asuna?"

"Hmph."

"You want me to talk, now you don't want to talk, which is it?" The bewildered blond grumbled.

One brown eye peeked over her shoulder before she turned again, her nose turned up high, "I'm not saying anything else until you get in!"

Groaning, the blonde wearily stood up and shrugged off his cloak before changing into something more comfortable before he slid onto the cot. It was a little snug since it had originally only been meant for one person, but it still accommodated his frame perfectly fine as long as the two of them were practically on top of each other.

Scratch that thought, how the hell was this fine? Naruto mentally swore to himself.

Any further mental derogatory thoughts were instantly derailed as Asuna molded her back to him with another one of her contented sighs before she reached over to loop his arm over her waist.

"Asuna?" Naruto asked in a strangled tone.

The girl he was spooning against began snoring.

"**GAAAH!" **

******The Hunter******

**Play Skillet – Dead Inside**

Naruto absent-mindedly chewed on... something; he couldn't really remember what it was, though he thought that was entirely justified given how distracted he was at the moment.

"What's the plan, boss?" A chubby young man asked as he dipped his hand into the bag loosely hanging from Naruto's grip.

The blonde's contemplating gaze shifted from the large iron doors to the 25th floor's Boss Room to the young boy with messy brown bangs that fell over squinty green eyes. His white and red armour clearly marked him as a member of the KoB, "Uh…. You're... one of Tamamo's aren't you?"

"Guisniman, but you can just call me, Gui. I insist." The chubby young boy offered helpfully with a grin as he munched on the stolen sandwich, "And yeah, I'm one of the medics under Ta-chan, second fastest bar none." He declared with a comical puff of the chest.

"Did you randomly type in a username or something?"

"I figured that I was going to make a test character and have some fun with it, you know, test the waters a little, before making a serious one, who knew we'd all be stuck in here. Just goes to show that you can't mess around anymore though." Gui shrugged and tried to reach into the bag again but the taller blond pulled back his bag with a possessive growl, "Mine. Get your own."

"Sorry, heh heh, I kinda forget to stop eating whenever I'm nervous. Did Asuna-taicho make those by the way? She always uses that green powder for flavouring whenever she brings us some snacks."

"I'll give you the rest if you shut up right now."

"Deal." Gui snatched the bag and began munching happily, "So? What's the plan?"

"Violence." Naruto replied amiably, "Lots and lots of violence."

Gui rolled his eyes, though he was secretly a little amused and relieved at how approachable the blond apparently was in contrast with how he usually acted, "Funny how every problem in this game seems to go away with judicious use of violence, but a little more specifics wouldn't hurt would it?"

Naruto shrugged lazily, "I wasn't the one doing the plans this time, I'm just the guy that tells everybody else where to point their spears and make sure we don't hit one of our own people by accident."

"What? Seriously? No fancy plans or anything this time? I actually _liked _all the manoeuvring you had us do the last time." The boy replied with a wide grin, "Of course, I wasn't bait at the time, but it was still funny watching all those big, proud men running around like scared mice."

"No need for fancy plans I guess," Naruto sighed as he reluctantly dug into his emergency bag of nuts, "We went in a few times to test the A.I. Bog standard Boss on a throne while three flunkies spawn periodically. He didn't seem to have anything special save a really big hammer, so we'll watch out for that while we surround him before we pound his ass into the ground. That's just me and the Archers though. You and the first battalion get to engage him upfront and personal while the splinter groups keep his flunkies off the main group's backs. When the first battalion gets tired, we switch in with the second battalion and give them some time to recoup. Rinse and repeat."

"I totally lost you at main battle force. It sounds cool though."

"Are you SURE you want to be a Medic?"

"Of course, why do you ask?"

"Because I'd feel heck of a lot better for the fighters if their lives did NOT depend on you."

Gui giggled and leaned in with a conspiratorial look, "They all secretly feel that way, but everyone is too polite to say anything."

The blond gave the young boy an amused look as if recognizing a fellow trickster, "Not as stupid as you act, are you?"

"It's the face," Gui remarked depreciatingly, "They see all this fat, acne and horrible eating habits, and they automatically think retard. Got me out of some tough situations a few times before though."

"I'll bet it did." The blond snorted as he gazed at the slowly building crowd in front of the large gate, "It's almost time to start, they have already begun to get into groups."

Standing up, the tall man shrugged his cloak's hood on before he seemed to pause. His head bowed though his back remained proud and unbent. Gui arched one curious eyebrow at the stationary man.

His white cloak shifted slightly in the wind and a prayer of some sort drifted to his ears, "Those who cry, those who wait, those who watch," The man seemed to murmur to himself, his words reverberated in the air, "Those who fight, those who bleed and those who triumph." He lifted his spear in defiance and slashed it across the air once, the blade humming with power, "Do not falter."

His head lifted, and Gui saw a burning resolve in those eerily clear orbs before they gave the merrily munching boy a look, "Try to come out in one piece alright?"

"You're a lot nicer than people seem to give you credit for."

"Try saying that again **after **you've played cards with me. I'll even give you a handicap and promise I'll let you leave with your pants on since I like you."

"Touché."

As far as Boss Fights went, the opening volley was smooth and easy. There was no bit by bit approach, no inching forward, since everybody knew what to expect and the first wave hit hard and fast.

After twenty five floors of experience, boosted by a near zero death rate during the past five Boss fights, almost every player that filed into the hall with a challenging roar that shook the ceiling seemed to vibrate with confidence and strength. In the face of this ravening Horde and their cry, the minor spawns took a step back at their ferocity, even the two storey humanoid Boss who seemed to be based on a Human Blacksmith took a step back, his leather jerkin stretched tight around his wobbling belly.

The ones who had experience fought with a rage that few had seen before, a desperate struggle to climb out of Aincrad, even while they shouldered the burden of watching out for the less experienced members who had only recently joined the frontlines; the Tanks used the skills gained from levelling Heavy weapons to make sure that the Boss and his flunkies attention were always on them, freeing their faster and more dangerous but lesser armoured comrades to flank the Boss and deal as much damage as they wished without fear of retaliation.

A little further back from the main battle line, the Archers were divided into an arrowhead formation of four groups; each squad was tasked with dealing with a single target while the main one focused on the Boss itself. The main squad was divided into three groups, two composed entirely of powerful and heavily armoured Sharpshooters while the lighter and faster Ravagers darted in and out of battle, distracting their targets. For every small spear that slipped into the armour chinks that the Sharpshooters couldn't hit translated into one axe or hammer swing that would go awry, dealing simple, easily healed damage or miss entirely, and that would mean an easier time for everybody.

Even further back from the Archers were the Medics. Row upon row of silent sentinels stood watch along the walls, all of them stood at attention under the overall command of Tamamo's hawk eyed amber gaze as she coordinated her Medics and made sure there was enough potions and crystals left in the supply crates. Each Party was assigned at least one Medic, and those Medics would stand at the back, keeping an eye on their Party's overall health bar, darting in and out of the rampage every time their wards' Health dipped too low or if someone was poisoned by the minions' poisoned axes.

Just outside the Gate, the Second Battalion stood, deathly silent as they watched the First Battalion crash on the boss, dissecting their enemies' patterns and techniques while they waited for the signal to replace them when it came.

They were a perfectly oiled war machine that had one and only goal; to tear the fat bastard apart.

They had been fighting for almost two continuous hours when everything fell apart like a house of cards the moment the Boss lost half of his total Health.

It was a simple, almost innocuous mistake. One of the Medics had been on his way to heal his Party when a flunky quite randomly decided to ignore the pattern altogether. Ignoring the tanks that had been keeping his Aggro the entire time, it suddenly lumbered forward with surprising speed and caught the Medic, who had been scared stiff, with a powerful head splitting axe blow.

The entire Group almost fell apart at the seams; the shaken Medics struggled to pick up the slack and blame the Sweepers for doing too much damage off the Tanks Hate skills at the same time, while the Sweepers blamed the Tanks for being inefficient. The Tanks themselves just wondered what the hell just happened.

It was an strange problem; but one that was quelled by a single burning glare from Kirito, the overall Leader of the operation, that told them that this matter would be resolved _after _the Boss died, not before.

Almost petulantly, Group F returned to their designated duty of keeping the flunky's attention AWAY from their squishier friends while Group G, made entirely out of Sweepers and Medics, attacked with a little more caution.

Just as they had almost got their rhythm back, the Blacksmith's Great Hammer rose into the air. The Boss held the Hammer which was almost larger than him aloft for a single breathless moment, before it surged downwards.

The Tanks almost immediately lifted their weapons in defence while the faster Medics and Sweepers high tailed it out of there on instinct. There was a short scream that was brutally cut off as the Hammer crunched into the ground with a shower of sparks and a humongous CLANG!

Although the cold marble floor was miraculously undamaged, thirty people instantly died as the entire war machine ground to a screeching halt to stare incredulously.

"What the hell was that?"

"They DIED!"

"But they defended, I SAW them, a whole fucking Group of Tanks STILL went poof!"

"An instant kill attack?" Someone whispered harshly, "That's not fair!"

"Stop having a nice chat!" Someone shouted with a clear note of terror in his voice as the Blacksmith, now free of his Hate started to lumber towards the wide eyed Sweepers and Medics while the lone Tank that was included in Group B tried to hold him off, "We NEED BACKUP BEFORE HE KILLS EVERYBODY ELSE!"

Group B was almost seemed to be frozen in place like trapped mice as their lone tank stood against the Boss, his red armour seemed to carve a red swath through the air as Heathcliff's shield worked overtime to deflect the Hammer by himself. It was clear that they wanted to run but everybody there knew that if they ran, it would have reset the Boss' Agro and every single bit of progress they had gained in the past three hours would have been completely wasted as he instantly and fully healed himself, but reinforcement was clearly hesitant. Every other Group that was already deployed were busy trying to stay alive themselves and the Second Main Force refused to step into the chamber until a white cloak seemed to flick irritably, as if showing off its owner's stone faced anger.

"**SECOND BATTALION!"** a familiar voice roared with a commanding note that simply demanded obedience, his blue eyes blazed angrily as the group of men wavered uncertainly, "You don't have to kill him! Just stop him from regenerating his Health while we figure out what the hell just happened!"

They moved, albeit with a lot of shuffling feet and scared looks.

"**MOVE IT, PRINCESSESS!"**

**Play Masami Mitsuoka – Last Cross**

The shuffling broke out into a quick run as the first battalion slowly inched back with clearly relieved looks on their faces.

Just outside the Gate, a small discussion was being carried out in hushed and angry tones, as the rest of the Clearers stood around awkwardly while their Leaders tried to make sense of everything.

"I saw it; I was barely out of range when that damned thing hit. I know they defended but everybody who was directly hit by that Hammer died instantly. It's unblockable." He heard Siegel mutter quietly.

"The damage taken should have been shared evenly amongst the entire Party, see if there are any Medics from Group A that survived." Kirito ordered evenly although some of his friends realized that his fists were shaking, "We need to make sure that your assumption is true before we try anything else. We also know that it wasn't an Area of Effect attack since Group B only suffered minor injuries, so that's something at least."

As one of the messengers darted off with Tamamo to make a quick head count and confirm Siegel's claim, Egil's deep calm baritone echoed in the chamber, "There's another problem. No matter what the support Groups did, the spawns will randomly lose Hate roughly every thirty seconds and go after some random idiot. It's only a time before they go after the Main force."

Naruto punched the wall; his face was clearly bleak with worry.

Silently, he felt an almost tiny, trembling hand slip into his, as Asuna discretely sunk down beside him. Her face was completely ashen and her eyes were wide, "I was right in front of the Tanks. I saw him looking at me, and I think he knew. He pushed me away..." She whispered in a shaky tone, "That was all that saved me from being killed."

As a hurried and hushed argument continued to rage nearby them, Naruto simply squeezed the small hand, "I…. I'm sorry." He whispered.

He didn't know what to say other than that.

Tamamo returned shortly after that, her shoulders sagging as she shook her head silently, "A few people saw Kumitsu, one of the three medics that I assigned to Group A die even though he wasn't anywhere the front lines."

The entire clearing went silent.

"What should we do?" Someone asked quietly, "Should we just quit? If we get hit by that hammer, it's an insta kill no matter how much HP you got. Group A was made out of some of the strongest Tanks and Medics around. If they couldn't handle the damage, you can be damned sure we can't."

"What about Heathcliff?" Another person said with some awe, "He took that Boss on his own when everyone else was running like cowards. You think he can hold out long enough for us to dog pile it to death?"

Kirito sucked in a deep breath as he set his jaw, "Look, this is no different from every other Boss with a gimmick." He remarked with a clear, strong tone, "Last time, it was incurable poison, all we did was run like hell. Now we just need to do the same."

"Yeah… but poison is poison. As long as we kept drinking potions, even if it was incurable until the Boss died, we still survived." Moritaka pointed out doubtfully, "This guy does instant kills. It's like the game suddenly stopped playing around and decided to start blatantly massacring us. We don't exactly have a second chance if we slip up."

White fabric rustled as Naruto breathed deeply, he couldn't feel it himself, but he could understand it. Never before had Sword Art Online start killing players so blatantly killing players off, but he couldn't allow this to continue. The mood of the crowd around them was already starting to get ugly as they agreed with Moritaka, and if he let it, the momentum could only grow and the psychological block they were facing would only seem even more insurmountable.

"Then don't." The blonde who had been sitting right at the back of the discussion this entire time finally spoke with a hard expression as he squeezed Asuna's hand again, "Kirito is right. Compared to the other Bosses, this guy is easy. That attack of his has a long wind up time, so we just have to dodge the second we see it." He slowly looked around the clearing, meeting every eye with burning clarity, "We've all seen people die by the dozens before, so why are all of you scared? The only difference this makes is the fact that the Blacksmith is doling it out legitimately."

Siegel returned Naruto's hard look with a measuring one as he calmly thought the man's words through, "Joker-sama has a point. All we need to do is dodge it, in a certain sense of the word, it's far easier than most of the other Bosses we've faced so far. If we can get some of the faster Tanks into Group A and add more Medics to compensate for less defence and HP, we should be able to inch our way through just barely."

"What about the flunkies?" Egil reminded his friend.

"Leave that to the Archers." Naruto observed, "We'll concentrate all our firepower on killing them as fast as possible before they can harm anybody. There's a few minutes pause between each respawn, so we'll use that time to deal with the Boss."

"It will be slower by a fair amount since the only Damage Dealers targeting the Blacksmith will be Group B unless the Archers can pull through in time." Kline noted with a scratch of his head.

Naruto cocked his head, "Which one do you prefer more? Slow or dead?"

"When you put it that way… I'm totally fine with this idea. Group D reporting for service, Sir!" Kline replied with a grin.

"Group C is ready and roaring, Sir." Egil saluted him with a broad grin.

"The Medics will do their best, Naruto-sama." The pink haired Tamamo nodded with a coquettish smile.

As morale slowly built up again, he felt Asuna squeezing his fingers.

He squeezed back.

"Will you be alright with this?" The blonde questioned with a worry tinting his tone, "No one will blame you if you sit this one out. Everybody else was pretty shaken after all

"I'll... be fine. You were right; we've seen so many people die. This is no different but I won't just sit around saying it can't be helped. I'm going to do something about it." Bright brown eyes stared up at him with a strange gleam in them, "Watch out for me?"

"Always." The blonde said simply.

As the two of them entered the hall again, Naruto let go of Asuna and glared at the Boss.

**Play John Dreamer – Brotherhood **

"**Second Battalion, get ready to shift, then get your orders from Tamamo and rest up!" **Kirito roared defiantly. A clearly audible sigh of relief rose from the players that were holding the Boss and his mooks off, the presence of the first battalion, reenergized and defiant filled their hearts with courage. Some of them were even frank enough to admit that they had thought the first battalion would have just left them here as a sacrifice while they rabbited away, but their presence now signified that the leaders had thought of a plan.

A few of them even thanked Group A and B as they surged forward, crashing into the two storey tall Blacksmith and pushed him back to let the Archers deal with the smaller mobs.

At the front, spears, pikes, swords, axes and shields rose as Group A began taunting and stabbing humongous belly that hung above them. Even if he didn't want to, their Hate skills forced the Boss to face them and only them. Unrelentingly, they weathered his blows and struck back just as hard.

A feminine voice yelled reached the ceiling as Asuna threw herself into the attack with like a flurry of flaming auburn tornado, she wasn't fighting the Boss; she was fighting her own fear.

The moment they were in place, it was as if a switch had been flipped as every single Archer in the hall rained dreadful fury onto a single target, decimating the first flunkie within minutes before it even had a chance to attack.

As one, they switched targets and spears filled the air like a thick river of wood and steel. Medics began working overtime as they ran back and forth, bringing in new quivers of spears and replacement bows for the Archers as the second flunkie went down.

Fingers and twine blurred as spear upon spear stabbed into the third flunkie, bringing it down within seconds. The rain seemed to stop as the Archers turned as one.

They were silent, but every player no matter their class was clearly hell-bent on one thing. Avenging the deaths of their friends and defying their fear.

Roaring in pain, the only enemy remaining roared a blood curdling roar that twisted his slobbering lips into an animalistic leer. His Hammer rose in to the air and as one, Group A and B turned around and began running towards the exit at a dead sprint.

Blue eyes scanned the retreating Groups with stark clarity as he searched for any sign of burnished auburn when he realized that Asuna had stayed back. Or more precisely, the idiotic girl was returning the favour the unknown Tank had granted her. By staying at the back of the group, making sure everyone got out of the way when the hammer began to fall.

Naruto wasn't quite sure why he did it but he moved.

Slinging the bow behind his back, his hands blurred into his cloak and emerged with glinting daggers. His face was etched in a grim leer as he threw them at Asuna.

Her brown eyes widened and for a moment, fear filled her eyes before she squeezed them shut. Growling, Naruto pulled on something invisible and the daggers suddenly changed trajectories and caught the girl by her uniform. Yanking the wires attached to his daggers, the blond pulled Asuna from under the Hammer before catching her bodily.

"Can you not do that?" He muttered.

Brown eyes opened again and she shrugged as Naruto set her down gently, "You promised."

The blond grunted and swiftly cut his wires before he slipped his knives back into his cloak before he unslung his Bow.

He sent a signal towards his group of Archers and a frisson ran through them as they drew their spears while Group A and B stormed back into the fray.

To most people, the manic blond seemed to dance in and out of the players with a terrifying gleam in his eyes but despite that, none of his glowing spears seemed to hit the Boss. All they did was graze and irritate it, as if his anger was throwing off his aim when the Blacksmith slowly heaved his Hammer up into the air again.

To him, as the world seemed to melt away, there was nothing but his prey.

I'm sorry, you oversized potato couch, I've got somewhere I need to go and YOU!" Naruto jabbed one finger at the hulking Boss defiantly as the players around him began running away, **"ARE. IN. MY. FUCKING. WAY!"**

Most of them figured that the blonde had finally lost it.

"**Original Skill; Hunter's Moon." **

There was a deep rumbling as the room itself seemed to shake as the sound of rock grating on rock echoed loudly.

Then everything was quiet as the players waited for the dust to settle.

"Did he REALLY just drop the** CEILING** on the Boss?" Someone muttered in a strangled tone.

It sounded a lot like Heathcliff.

******The Hunter******

One of these days, we're going to do a proper FF13 crossover because we're starting to get a little confused. The readers aren't the only ones that don't who Naruto is going to end up with here. In fact, you can pretty much tell who wrote most of the chapter just by seeing who the chapter is teasing Naruto with.

Hint: Kishi likes pink hair, while I personally prefer Asuna. That's right; the authors themselves have no friggin clue what they're doing with the pairing. Ship to Ship combat at its finest. Oh and, Holy Shit, I never freaking knew Kishi could write romance. Way to go bro, unless you snuck out some painkiller and wrote it while you were high out of your mind, if so, bad kitty!

Kishi: **o.o t(^.^t)**


	10. The House of Glass

**The Hunter Chapter 10**

**The House of Glass**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic.**

Huh, I don't think we've mentioned this, what an oversight, thank you random Guest reviewer for asking. Anyway, the way we're going about skills is based on Dragon Quest 9 and Star Ocean 2's levelling system; two of the few games that Kur0 can actually tolerate long enough to finish it. Equip Daggers and as you level it by using it in battle, in this game the max is 1000, you get more and more Sword Skills as well as some passive bonuses. For example, a dagger user might get + 10 to AGI every 100 levels while a Spear/Halberd user might get + 10 to CON every 100 levels. A sword User however might lean towards + 5 STR and + 5 DEX every level.

So if you can mix and match properly, you are not restricted to the typical character classes like Knight or Thief etc. Somebody with enough skills in Dagger(Light class weapons) would naturally gain enough Thief-like skills and lean towards the faster, swifter side of things with less damage but more skills in disabling traps etc while a sword user (Middle class weapons) would be more balanced and offensive orientated while Halberd/Axe(Heavy class weapons) users would be geared towards damage mitigation skills and Hate generation with some heavy damagers thrown in for good measure.

The same applies to equipment (levelled by taking damage) and the craft skills, Shields and Armour give + 5/10 to HP/CON/STR etc. I'm sure I don't need to go into specifics, while the craft skills don't actually give any bonuses or active skills, which is why they are regarded as a waste of time particularly at the beginning of the game where every little extra stat counted. The only benefit levelling them would give is access to higher level materials and a higher chance of success in crafting. Naruto being Naruto depends more on his own wits and using/combining the skills that he does have in an unorthodox manner.

Incidentally, all weapon classes have an ultimate skill that is unlocked at max level, that mechanism is one that I'm basing from another game.

**Soundtrack List**

Immediate Music –The Reluctant Warrior

Linkin Park – BURN IT DOWN

Two Steps from Hell - Jump

Linkin Park – Castle of Glass

Limp Bizkit – Behind Blue Eyes

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Libera me from Hell

******The Hunter******

Blazing blue eyes looked up as Naruto set his jaw, **"HEEEEATTTHHHCLIFFFFFFF!" **

The brown haired man smiled viciously as he gave an answering challenge, **"JOOOOOOOOOOOOOKERRR!"**

Time almost seemed to slow for the two fighters. Their gazes were so focused on each other's eyes that the world seemed to melt away as Naruto slowly drew his last spear.

******The Hunter******

Kirito looked around in a semi detached daze as he sat alone in a corner of the room. In his current state of haziness, the raven haired boy seemed to barely register anything as his eyes swept around the 25th floor's Boss Chamber.

Right in the middle of the large and well lit room was a ton of rubble, a crude make shift tomb stone that proudly declared the defeat of the monster that had taken the lives of nearly 50 people and one that Kirito knew would only last for a few more minutes at most.

It seemed fitting.

Blearily, he looked up at the ceiling. Cold black iron spears poked out of the stone in a rough circle that surrounded the gaping hole in the rocky incline, denoting the exact where the manic blond had been aiming the entire time before weakening it enough for the ceiling to drop like a fist from the Heaven's itself.

Offhandedly, he could see Argo; her expression was a strange mix of nervous fear and sick curiosity as she talked animatedly with a rotund player, his white and red armour flapped agitatedly as he seemed to be trying to persuade the smaller girl about something. Though he couldn't hear their conversation, it was clear that the boy's argument was failing miserably if Argo's irritation progressively overshadowed her curiosity. The male player wasn't familiar to Kirito and since they had never been in the same party, much less the same guild, the player's name looked like little more than a bunch of green gibberish to Kirito. The only reason he even knew that the messy haired boy was from KoB was because of his distinctive uniform.

His eyes moved onto the next small group. A small congregation that consisted of a sad looking brown haired man in silvery grey armour while a foreign woman with silver hair stood behind him, frowns as they talked to a blond man in a white cloak, a red haired man in burnished bronze armour and Asuna. Every single one of them wore sad frowns as Naruto laid one hand on the man's shoulders while he bowed his head with a bitter expression, and Kirito knew exactly why.

The maximum amount of individuals allowed in a party was 6 people, while a raid party consisted of 8 parties. Group A had been one of those Raid Groups with 4 or 5 tanks to each party and the remaining slots filled with Medics. Each party in the Tank Group knew what to do; the first two parties to attack first would take the brunt of the damage until it was too much, then they would Switch In with two of the other six parties, allowing them to take a minor break. Group B had been built along similar lines, only with a greater emphasis on Sweepers while the third and last Raid Group was separated into smaller and more balanced versions of Group A and B to deal with the three sentinels. The Second Battalion contained another three Raid Groups and divided along the same lines would wait outside until someone needed to rest. That was the basic setup they had for almost every Boss Fight since the Second Floor and it usually worked, with that many Tanks in one Raid Group cycling between parties, the chances of any Boss taking them out so easily had been close to nil, with the greatest casualties usually coming from the softer targets like Sweepers or the Medics.

The Archers usually didn't die at all since they were almost exclusively from KoB and the first thing Naruto always taught them to do was to run like rabbits.

As the Chamber slowly cleared, several people threw the black haired boy sitting in the corner sympathetic looks before exiting. Kirito himself wrapped his cloak around himself a little tighter with a bleak expression, easily ignoring their attempts to console him with a frosty glare.

In total, there had been more than 250 players actively present at the Boss Fight, with nearly a hundred reserve Clearers waiting back in town. Kirito used 'had' because Group A had been decimated in one strike. As one of the longest standing Tank Groups, it had been made out of some of the strongest Tanks in SAO, and a hefty number of them had come from MMO Today, particularly since MMO had been amongst the first few guilds to be created and properly organize a resistance.

With Group A completely decimated, MMO Today had lost more than a third of their fighting strength, resulting in one of the single biggest losses since the tenth floor.

And it had all been his fault.

He couldn't even say with any certainty that Naruto would have done just as bad or worse.

The blond was a minimalist even at the best of times but given the White Archer's almost borderline obsession with sending in Parties bit by bit to test the waters and as a result, reduce any risk of being surprised, Naruto would have most likely been able to handle this setback with lower losses. It was also significantly slower since the blond almost absolutely refused to commit everything in the first blow. At best, he would compromise with an extra party or two to keep his detractors quiet but if anyone could agree on one thing, it was that his way was almost always safer. Much safer.

This brought Kirito's thoughts full circle. Jet black eyes stared at the ceiling again. Already, the ragged blue edges were already patching up and the rubble was visibly fizzing out of existence.

Most people knew that the White Archer was good at a bow and even better at cheating or finding loopholes to abuse, something he did with a comedic flair to amuse people and divert attention away from what he was actually doing, but that was probably all they knew.

Kirito however, had spent nearly a month watching the blond for incongruous behaviour and the raven haired boy knew that beneath all the flair, the White Archer had an almost pathological aversion to revealing his tricks unless it was necessary or if it would serve a greater purpose….

….Or if he was simply pushed too far, in which case the correct answer would be to run like hell in the opposite direction.

He could still remember tracking the blond to an empty field on the 15th floor the day after Serah and Tamamo had found him, where he basically began slacking again. Lying down on the grass with a completely carefree expression that annoyed the Black Swordsman, Naruto began fiddling with a piece of wood for no reason whatsoever_. _

_Almost two entire hours passed and his muscles had almost given up from sheer boredom before the blond suddenly stirred and slowly stood up again with a stretch, as if he had finally gotten bored of slacking and was going back home. _

_Up in his hiding spot, he had shrunk back into the shadows again, making use of the Hiding Bonus his cape granted him and watched with interest as a stranger appeared on the edge of the field directly behind Naruto. Instinctively, he had known that the strange man had been watching Naruto as well since he had materialized out of nowhere, a telling sign that the man had an advanced level in Hiding, especially if Kirito had not noticed him either. _

_The Black Swordsman half thought that they had arranged for a meeting when the man suddenly began dashing forwards, his feet barely making any sound at all despite the tall grass. The deep orange gibberish that appeared above his head when Kirito focused on him almost certainly made it clear that the man was not here for a nice chat and the Black Swordsman felt a surge as panic as a dagger surged towards Naruto's undefended back. _

_The blond on the other hand seemed as carefree as ever, almost stupidly so, and simply stepped aside with a polite leer, sticking out his foot as he did so, causing the Orange Player to trip and go flying, "It took you long enough. I almost thought you were just another of those fanboy stalkers wanting to kill me for being so friendly with Asuna and Lightning."_

_The nonplussed man with his head half buried in the ground blinked at the blond's conversational tone, "…What?" _

_Naruto squatted with a friendly smile plastered to his face, "Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to make a move? It's pretty damn annoying you know, having to wait out in some low level field just because idiots like you like to PK low levelled players." His smile turned horrifyingly sweet, "So how do you plan on compensating me for all that lost time?"_

_The speechless man stared at him as if he couldn't believe that he was being shaken down by some random person that had been slacking on an empty field day after day, which was pretty understandable as far as Kirito was concerned. He had wondered if the blond was going nuts a few times himself. _

_Naruto rolled his eyes before rubbing the armour with a keen eye, his voice floating over to Kirito's sharp ears, "Hmmm… this is pretty good leather armour, level 30 or thereabouts, I'd say. Definitely not NPC bought, which means you're probably some idiot who couldn't keep up with the frontlines and dropped out. Feeling a little depressed and useless, you probably took to killing low level players because it made you feel powerful." Naruto half asked, half stated to himself, "You liked the rush of bullying and killing poor little defenceless idiots, realizing that there was no consequences as long as no one caught you. The ones who tried couldn't match you, and the Clearers couldn't care less." He grinned again, "Am I right so far?"_

"_You missed one."_

"_Oh?"_

"_I'm not alone." The orange player smiled as a shadow loomed behind Naruto. _

_Blue eyes narrowed dangerously as he dove to the side, barely avoiding a large two handed sword that cleaved into the ground. _

_Naruto calmly stood up and began dusting his cloak, discretely keeping an eye on them. The orange gibberish above their heads hid their identity from the blond, "So two? No other people?" _

"_Maybe. What's it to you?" _

_The blond shrugged and Kirito wondered if he even had any common sense rattling around in that golden haired head of his, "Professional curiosity mostly." _

_The larger one who had attacked him from behind shrugged callously, "Never needed more than two to be honest." _

_Up in his tree, Kirito's blood boiled at the shaggy haired man's words._

_A red comet blazed past him, blowing a hole in the side of his head, causing the PKer to go wide eyed and curse loudly._

"_Oh trust me, you're __**definitely **__going to need more than two." Naruto noted grimly. Above his head, his username remained a peaceful green since the system considered it as self-defence. Had Naruto attacked them while their names were green, his own name would temporarily gone Orang for 10 minutes at most, assuming he didn't go any further. The penalties for killing another green player however, were somewhat heavier and the Orange stain would remain for at least a day, increasing incrementally with each crime. _

_The two of them shared a look before they darted away in the opposite direction. Crystal blue eyes narrowed to thin slits as the blond fired spear after spear, his foot working rapidly beneath him to avoid getting flanked by either of them when the smaller one abruptly changed direction and shot straight at the blond with his dagger primed while his partner continued to circle around Naruto. _

_The White Archer jumped and fired a spear at the Orange Player beneath him. The lithe man dodged it with a grimy grin and signalled for something before the blond landed a few feet away. Crouching immediately, Kirito could almost see the massive sword slice ruffle a few strands of golden hair with the force of its swing before the Archer dove away again from another dagger slash. _

"_You're not bad." The big man huffed and Kirito half wondered why this two Pkers hadn't recognized Naruto if they were really former Clearers. Sure they probably wouldn't see his username as anything other than a bunch of random green letters, but his white cloak was fairly distinctive. _

"_Out of shape?" Naruto questioned calmly as he shot another spear at the large man. _

_Stepping in front of his friend, the larger man hefted his massive zanbatou, allowing it to take the hit instead of him. The spear crashed and broke on it uselessly before the man peeked out with a smug grin and gestured at the smaller man beside him, "My friend here would usually poison them before we let them run and between the two of us, we'd hunt them down like animals." The two of them laughed cruelly, "They generally don't get very far with the pain and paralysis." _

"_Why?"_

"_Like you said, it was fun. We're all going to die anyway, might as well enjoy it while we can." _

"…_.. Why?" Naruto asked quietly with an obscure pain in his voice, "Why? Why are you making me do this?"_

**Play Immediate Music –The Reluctant Warrior**

_His blue eyes instantly turned as cold as chips of ice as all emotion drained from his face. _

_Without any further words, both of them shot forwards and Naruto notched three spears at once. They began to glow a vicious red before the blond released them simultaneously when the large man suddenly stepped in front of the spears, letting it thud against his barrel shaped chest while he flung his sword at the wide eyed blond, Naruto barely managed to heft his bow in time for the steel blade to crash against him, shattering the bow and sending the White Archer seemed to stumble over backwards with the force. _

"_Can't do ANYTHING without your Bow now, can you?" He declared triumphantly, "Looks like the celebrated White Archer is nothing if he doesn't have any tricks up his sleeve left."_

_So they DID know that he was the White Archer, which meant the reason they took so long to take the bait was because they were checking to see if they could catch him at his most unprepared. _

_Cackling loudly, the smaller man took advantage of his friend's move with a cruel leer, the glinting edge of his dagger hurtled towards Naruto's defenceless chest._

_Kirito was almost half way out of his tree when he heard the blond's growl._

"_**Thank you for coming so close**__." _

_His white cloak flared and black eyes widened incredulously._

_Forget putting a trick up his sleeve; the blond had somehow managed to stuff an entire freaking armoury into his cloak._

_Row upon row of gleaming blades hung from the inside of his cloak, forming a formidable wall of cold steel. His hands dipped into their folds and two gleaming hunting knives emerged from their depths before he struck like a snake. _

_Like the last time, he didn't have decency to hiss. However, unlike the last time, he certainly wasn't aiming for the base of the dagger. _

_In one smooth twirl, the blond simply sliced off the man's wrist._

_The blade in his other hand cleaved away his knees in a show of almost elegant brutality. Shifting his weight Naruto surged forwards and the two blades were plunged into the PKer's armpits before stabbing into his neck. Stopping mid charge abruptly, his momentum changed again and he back flipped before the surprised PKer even had the time to realize that he missing three limbs. The tip of Naruto's boot collided with his chin, sending him hurtling upwards when the blond landed in a semi crouch. _

_Kirito faintly heard a low growl coming from the blond's throat as he flowed from his crouch into a powerful jump. Rocketing into the air, he grabbed the airborne man by the neck and stabbed another two daggers into the sides of his head. Using the handles for support, he flipped again and sent the PKer hurtling downwards with a powerful axe kick where he collided with his gaping partner. _

_Blue eyes flashed coldly as a black spear that almost seemed to radiate coldness appeared his hands. Twirling it above his head once, the blond plummeted through the air with an audible whistle before he rammed the entire spear through both of them, skewering them like a kebab. _

_By the time the smoke had cleared, the field was dead silent and Kirito's jaw had dropped. _

_The White Archer had all but dissected two men in less than ten moves and all he had to say was; "Oh Kirito, I didn't see you there."_

_Kirito boggled at the blond's eerily nonchalant greeting despite the fact he had two men skewered from head to foot lying by his feet. _

"_You were a little late though. The party already ended." _

_The two defeated men stared at him; their eyes were wide and stark with utter fear, silently begging Kirito to save them as their HP bar slowly depleted. The blond loomed above them, his amiable smile was paper thin and only served to make the icy look in his eyes even more bloodthirsty, savouring the sheer panic etched on their faces as they watched what remained of their pitiful lives slowly drip away before their very eyes. _

Back in the present, Kirito heaved another heavy sigh.

The two men had survived, narrowly, if only because he had insisted, but the absolutely ruthless look in the blond's eyes had shaken the Black Swordsman. He couldn't even tell if the man had enjoyed decimating them or hated it.

Secretive Archers aside, for some unfathomable reason, he had suddenly chosen to reveal not one, but two cards; his wired daggers and a honking huge hole in the ceiling, something that was _supposedly_ impossible because the terrain was _supposed _to be an Immortal Object.

Not even the Blacksmith, with all his strength and his massive Hammer had managed to put a tiny crack in the marble floor, and yet Naruto managed to poke a hole in the roof with a few spears? Something was seriously strange here.

Black cloth rustled as Kirito glanced around the empty chamber one more time and slowly stood up. Reaching behind him, he unsheathed his one handed sword and gripped it tightly. Yelling angrily, he slashed the wall with a Sword Skill. Sparks flew everywhere as the steel edge of the blade rasped against the black rock wall uselessly; there wasn't even a scratch on the wall. His eyes swept along the wall as he began to inch his way around the room, methodically striking the wall every few steps with a mid level Sword Skill and nothing to show for it.

His eyes slowly rose up the wall and he put one booted foot a rock and used it to boost his powerful leap. The black blur rapidly rose into the air, accompanied by a silver glow of his flashing blade as it barely crashed against the ceiling.

Landing with a thud, his jet black eyes narrowed at the light scratch he had gouged in to the ceiling. Flicking his blade again, the Black Swordsman began to methodically repeat the manoeuvre all around the room until he had cut out a series of small gouges in the ceiling, vaguely the shape of a cube situated directly in the middle of the Chamber.

At first he had thought it might have been a mistake, or even an oversight on Kayaba Akihiko's part to ensure that every inch of the Terrain was impenetrable, but the perfectly cube shaped structural weakness above him made it very clear that there was someone else who had been messing with the game's coding.

Panting lightly, he drew open his interface and glanced at the time. Seeing that it was a few hours before dinner, Kirito cocked his head and sheathed his sword before he began taking long loping strides towards the stairs.

He had 24 other Boss Chambers to check and he hoped that someone would leave some food for him.

******The Hunter******

**11****TH**** Floor: Taft**

**Play Linkin Park – BURN IT DOWN **

"What's wrong? You've been pretty tired the whole time." Her bob cut bounced a little as the dark haired girl gave him a concerned look.

It had been late at night after he had ran through the entire 24 floors of Aincrad when he had encountered a rather strange sight on his way back home for the night.

After saving the entire group of frazzled low-level players who had been accidentally caught up by the more aggressive monsters that usually came out at night, the understandably grateful leader had insisted that Kirito let them treat him to dinner. One thing led to another and the Leader, Keita, had cheerfully invited him to the Guild.

Since the Clearing had pretty much dwindled down to crawl ever since MMO Today had lost over a third of their battle strength, the raven haired boy didn't see anything wrong in accepting the Leader's invitation to Black Cats of the Full Moon, especially with Sachi egging him on.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason, even if the frontlines was barely edging forward at a pathetic rate, the real reason, Kirito admitted to himself was the crushing guilt. Thinker had adamantly refused to place any blame on Kirito, but the dark haired boy himself couldn't bring himself to look the man in the eye even a month later. Seeing the man walk away with Naruto's hand on his shoulder only reinforced how isolated he really felt deep down inside on top of the crushing guilt. He was at least honest enough to admit that was part of the reason that he had finally accepted the invitation. The family like atmosphere that the closely knit group of friends was just another bonus.

Another reason of course, was that joining the guild gave him the chance to keep a low profile, away from the other Clearers, as he investigated the quirky instances that seemed to surround the White Archer.

And so, he had officially joined the BCoFM, a group that consisted of only five members, all of them were computer enthusiasts from the same Computer Club in real life. Among the five, he had developed a peculiar friendship with the only female of the group, Sachi, probably because he spent the most time with her, teaching her how to use a sword and shield.

In fact, the two of them had gotten close enough that they regularly shared the same bed at night in a platonic manner, much to Ducker, the Guild's thief's jealousy and everybody else's amusement.

For an entire month, he more or less ignored all the messages that his friends kept sending him, only replying with vague assurances that he was alright. His main focus was on keeping himself too busy to even think about his failure. In the mornings and afternoons, he would spend time with the Black Cats of the Full Moon, pretending to be a slightly higher level player than them while he taught them the basics of staying alive in Aincrad when he wasn't following his friend around. At night, he would slip out to train alone on the front lines when he knew there would be far fewer Clearers. At this point, he knew he was but a shadow of his former self.

The raven haired boy paused his thoughts with a humourless chuckle and corrected himself.

Maybe he wasn't a shadow of his former self; maybe this was just how he would have been if he hadn't ever met Naruto. His melancholy was something that Sachi noticed all too easily and he knew that it really shook the girl up to see someone she looked up to appear so weak.

Even though Sachi had taken it onto herself to keep her Guild members' spirit from flagging with her dry humour and good cheer, the spear user herself had confided in Kirito that she was deathly afraid every time they left the safety of town. The same fear that locked her limbs every time she had to face a monster and hindered her levelling progress.

Black eyes slowly rose and he gave her an uncomfortable look, "It's nothing…." Kirito looked around the table where the rest of **his** Guild were talking and cheering.

Her dark eyes seemed uncertain, "If you're sure…"

"I'm really alright," Kirito assured her with a watery smile, "I just haven't been sleeping enough."

"I guess we've been running you a little ragged huh?" Sachi smiled apologetically, "The guys are really quite excited about you joining us. Even through you've only joined us for a month, we might actually be able to finally join the Clearers." She tried to reassure the dark haired boy enthusiastically even though she wasn't sure why he looked so down.

Kirito's vague smile only got weaker before he shrugged off the depressing thoughts off like he would a dirty cape, smiling tightly; he picked up a glass, "Cheers to our new Guild Headquarters. We're finally one step closer to the front lines!"

All around the tables, face splitting grins appeared and the four boys returned his toast with a rousing cheer.

To be specific, they had finally gathered enough Col to properly afford one of the smaller buildings on the eleventh floor, it wasn't much, but it was something that they could finally call their own instead of resting at inns the entire time. As soon as the sun rose, Keita would leave to properly make the purchase.

Kirito smiled tightly, it would also be the day that he finally settled everything with Naruto. He wanted to properly join the Black Cats of the Full Moon with a clean slate. He would do everything he could to help raise them into proper Clearers and then they join the front lines triumphantly.

When morning actually came and Kirito found himself standing outside the balcony of his little rented room in the inn, he suddenly found himself wishing that he had given his meeting with Naruto a little more thoroughly.

The blond Archer had given the request to meet the same amount of thought he seemed to give everything else, which is to say none. The reply had been quick and cheerful; asking Kirito to name the place and time as well as asking if he was feeling better, the dark haired boy couldn't help but feel guilty.

"Kirito-kun?" A familiar soft voice rang in his consciousness. Turning around, he glanced at the girl who had just gotten out of the bath room with a wet towel draped around her shoulders, her dark lustrous hair was wet and steaming in the cold morning air.

A little shiver ran down his back at the way she looked, "What is it, Sachi?"

"Ducker sent me a message earlier," the girl replied in her customary gentle tone, "He wants to buy some furniture for the new Guild Home as a surprise for Keita but we already spent everything on the Building, so he wants to go to the frontlines and try to gather enough Col for it before Keita-kun comes back," She continued running the towel over her hair carefully, "It would be a pretty nice gift wouldn't it?"

"I…." Kirito hesitated, should he go?

Noticing his hesitation, her dark eyes gazed at him curiously, "Do you have something to do? It's alright if we go alone you know. We're level 30 already."

"Normally the suggested level is ten levels higher than the current front line," The boy standing by the window remarked with his arms folded.

"That's 38, it's just eight levels so we should be fine." She assured him with a gentle smile, "I'd feel bad if you had to cancel your meeting with a friend just for us. You need to have a life outside the Guild as well, unless… you're not going out to meet another girl and you don't want us to know?" Sachi countered with a teasing smile.

"Do you really think so little of me?" Kirito asked her with a mock injured look.

Sachi sighed theatrically, "Oh I don't know. You keep drawing all these girls to you because you have to go and be nice to everyone, even a random little low level that you knocked down into the mud."

"She's not so little anymore," Kirito reminded her with a faint smile, "And you can rest assured, it's a guy. I'll let him know to meet us in the Dungeon and come with you. If anything, introducing him to the rest of the Guild might even help us later down the road."

"Oh?" She gave him a look that clearly told him to elaborate.

"He's pretty influential amongst the Clearers," Kirito admitted, "And if anyone knows how to help BCoFM become Clearers, it will be him."

The lukewarm winter sun rising behind him had nothing on her gentle yet brilliant smile, "I'm looking forward to meeting someone you respect so much."

"If only it was that simple."

"Hmm?"

"Nothing. Did Ducker say why he wanted to head to the front lines so fast? If it was just Col, we could always go somewhere safer."

"He said something about trying out the monsters there; we're not going in that deep, just around the entrance. Besides, the drop rate there will be much higher than the ones we've been visiting anyway."

"He's probably right." Kirito admitted although he also had a sneaking suspicion that the thief had an ulterior motive in mind. He had known Sachi for far longer than Kirito had and all of them that he was attracted to her. Even though he only laughed about it, Kirito had noticed him getting more and more reckless as his confidence increased, mostly by trying to show off his new Thief skills that he had gained from the Dagger class weapon.

Shrugging on her leather armour with a cute toss of her hair, Sachi smiled at him, "I'm done. Shall we go?"

It was only a short trip from their inn to the teleportation gate in the center of town, where Kirito watched as the rest of his Guild members dissolved one by one into a sprinkle of bluish white lights before disappearing entirely. Stepping into the Gate himself, he selected the 28th floor on the menu. There was short pause as the system registered his orders before his vision was slowly obscured by the same white lights that had taken his friends away.

******The Hunter******

A hooded blond stood outside the 28th floor's dungeon which only had been cleared last week. The blond scuffed his boots in apparent boredom as he waited for his friend to come out while he stared at the undecorated gate. The dungeon itself wasn't very impressive and the entrance only consisted of a simple wooden door that seemed to lead into a winding underground maze. In the deepest part of the maze, the Boss Chamber awaited along with the typical upwards spiralling stair case that led to the next floor even though it wasn't visible from outside.

Shoving his hands into his pockets to shield them from the cold air, Naruto breathed out a visible cloud of condensation and wandered in with a resigned expression. At least it would be warmer inside. Kirito had sent him a message asking him to wait for him outside when he came out with a few friends, but the blond was bored, and Kirito was already a whole hour late.

His footsteps echoed loudly in the maze, white cracked walls of stone stretched as far as he could see before it was abruptly cut off by a sharp turn. Technically, while the Labyrinth itself had been cleared, it's winding and twisting tunnels had been a continuous headache to every single person on the front line, so they had moved on as soon as they found the Boss Chamber. Getting lost in here for a trinket or two simply hadn't been worth the trouble. Even he had to regularly take stock of his position on the meagre map that the Clearers had compiled in order to navigate the long white columns in case he lost his way.

Again, if he might add.

People coming in here and getting lost for days on an end wasn't an uncommon story.

As his footsteps carried him down meandering hallways, the sound of a pitched battle reached his ears.

Clear blue eyes blinked somewhat slowly, while he couldn't claim to know everybody's schedule, it certainly seemed weird that somebody was in here while the rest of the Clearers were just only beginning to map out the 29th floor.

Curiously, he began walking into an unmapped part of the labyrinth with smooth loping strides, his bow held at the ready just in case. The closer he got, the more desperate the battle was beginning to sound as someone screamed in fear.

That last one sent him rocketing up the last flight of stairs. Skidding around a corner, he almost ran by the room without even realizing it.

Its door was hidden in the shadows of two jutting outcrops and made out of the same uniform, cracked white stone that made up the entire labyrinth. The only reason he didn't entirely miss it was because of the sounds from inside the room.

His ears perked, listening to the sounds of steel sparking against stone along with a strange wailing klaxon that immediately alerted him to a siren trap. It was one of the worst kinds of traps a player could encounter; if it wasn't disabled properly by a sufficiently high level thief it would set off a screaming signal that teleported nearly every monster in the dungeon to its vicinity.

The only hope of escaping that kind of assault was a teleport crystal, or if they had enough manpower, brute force. Given the amount of time they had been fighting, Naruto figured they had gotten careless and hadn't brought enough teleport crystals along.

Cursing once, he briefly tried the door the usual way before its unyielding stony face confirmed his fears. Heaving back, he before kicked it once but it didn't even budge. Taking a few steps back, the blond surged forward, putting all his strength and weight behind it, he kicked again with all his might and the door slammed open with a massive bang.

His eyes widened at the pitched battle on the inside, and he took stock of the situation with a swift glance, barely catching glimpses of coloured fabric between the flailing white rocky limbs. Seven feet tall monsters made of the same white rocks as the labyrinth seemed to be moving about the room like an overturned nest of ants. The creatures were uncannily shaped like humans but lacked the facial features, their arms ending in sharp jagged rocks that could be used as spears or blades.

Because of their texture and appearance, the blond almost thought that the labyrinth itself had come alive and was attacking whoever was stupid or unfortunate enough to get trapped inside.

His quiver dropped with a clank as he automatically began pelting the monsters with his spears, "WHO'S IN HERE?!" He thundered loudly, "WHY AREN'T YOU USING YOUR TELEPORT CRYSTALS!"

"We can't!" Someone called desperately, although there was a note of relief in his voice that help had arrived, "The room won't let us!"

"NARUTO? IS THAT YOU?"

Naruto cursed again before shouting as loudly as possible to make himself heard over the sound of a desperate battle, "KIRITO?! THE HELL YOU DOING IN HERE?!"

"HELP US!"

Clouded blue eyes swept the room again as he desperately tried to think of a way to save everybody.

The room was a simple and plain 10 by 4 feet narrow corridor and there were a total of three exits, one situated directly opposite him and the last and largest door was on the far right of the room. On his far left, a group of 4 four boys were desperately trying to stay alive against level 30 monsters. To get to them, he would have to fight his way through almost three quarters of the room by himself before making his way back through the horde.

On his far right, he glimpsed Kirito fighting with a mad glint in his eye, protecting a dark haired girl who fought her own battle not far away from him but the two of them were facing a horde of monsters that stopped them from using the exit behind them, and evidently the one they had come in from. Even now, monsters continually poured in from the largest door. The density of monsters between him and Kirito was a little lower since they were closest to his position but it was clear that they wouldn't last too long.

**Play Two Steps from Hell - Jump**

He could either help Kirito and his friend who were closer to the door or dive straight for the boys, but not both. Kirito might have been able to deal with a small group, but this many was suicide and in the long term, he was more important.

Making his decision, Naruto's bow snapped into overdrive by flinging spear after spear. The closest monsters that were of a normal human immediately found six spears sprouting out of his back.

It let out a strangled, "Oh," before pitching forward. Blue eyes narrowed as Naruto moderated his spears, the room was filled with monsters that impeded his sense of distance, he couldn't take the chance that he might hit Kirito. Slowly, the monsters turned around and realized that there was someone standing outside the room taking pot-shots at them. Lumbering slowly, the six feet tall abominations began to file out of the room, making it even harder for the spears to penetrate.

He briefly glanced at the four boys guiltily as one of them died with a horror filled scream. While he was distracted, a huge brute of a rock monster lumbered into him, slashing Naruto's chest with one arm as he let out a pained grunt.

One quick look told him that he had lost at least a quarter of his Health Bar.

Maybe he shouldn't have abandoned his Armour skill that fast.

Kicking the monster away, he shifted his stance, clear blue eyes thinned into slits as he cocked a number of spears at once. His stupidly large bow began to creak under the amount of force he was putting on the bow string, "_Original Skill: Lunar Fang!"_

The widespread spears blew away whole chunks of monsters, giving him some space to fluidly flow into his next blow as well as their full attention, allowing him to use the _Crescendo_.

The rapid stream of spears rammed against the wall of living rocks, digging a trench straight towards Kirito's left while the unscathed ones on the left and right began advancing again.

The moment the road was clear; he abandoned his bow and darted into the room. Leaping up, his hands dipped into his cloak and a pair of long hunting knives flashed in the dim light. His white cloak flapped violently as the blond landed on the first monster's chest, feet first, knocking him down before two blades sunk into its neck and twisted before he catapulted himself off the monster with a furious spin that decapitated an entire row of monsters that were surrounding him before he back flipped again to avoid the sword arm trying to remove his head.

In mid-air, the blond twisted and a rain of steel erupted from his cloak, spraying the line of monsters with various blades before he landed in a crouch next to his Bow, he fired another volley that penetrated enough monsters for him to see that Kirito was fighting beside a girl he did not know.

Without any hesitation whatsoever, he flicked his wrist, sending four daggers flying towards the last row of obstacles, lashing around their necks before Naruto heaved.

Swinging them around like weights, the blond threw them towards the group of monsters, knocking them like bowling pins before another set of daggers flickered out of his cloak and wound themselves around his target's torso.

Heaving on the thin but durable wire, he heard a scared yelp and braced himself before both of them crashed into him. Throwing them onto his shoulders, he immediately began sprinting the impossibly long six metres before the path he had cleared vanished.

Leaping clear of a low swipe, the three of them crashed outside the door with heavy pants before Naruto felt himself being shoved off Kirito, "Why didn't you save them?!"

A tortured yell tored itself from his throat as Kirito tried to run back in but a pair of daggers encircled his arms again and somebody pulled on the wires, trussing him up helplessly, "That's enough, Kirito, we can't save them!" somebody roared angrily before it softened.

"They already died before I got to the two of you…. "

******The Hunter******

**Play Linkin Park – Castle of Glass **

Asuna, Serah and Lightning crashed the doors with panicked expressions, only to be met with a stifling atmosphere.

Sitting on opposite sides of the square dining table, Kirito had his arms folded as he glowered at the blond's completely emotionless expression.

"You could have chosen to save them instead of us. I could have handled it!" Kirito growled in what seemed to be part of an interrupted conversation, completely ignoring the two females.

"What's going on?" Asuna asked carefully, wary of the strange hostile air between her two oldest friends in the game.

"I'm sorry, Asuna." The blond replied quite calmly, "Kirito and I are having a little disagreement."

"Disagreement? Is that what you call it? Three people died and you can only call it a disagreement? Then what are fifty people to you? A minor setback?"

"You know this," Naruto growled in reply, "I couldn't have saved them. With the numbers they were facing, they would have died before I got halfway there. Heck they DID just that."

"How could you have NOT saved them?" Kirito slammed the table as he shot upwards with another angry yell. Deep down, he knew that the blond had made the most logical and efficient decision but he would not, could not, bring himself to accept it, and he needed a target to lash out at, "Weren't you fond of saying that you'll save everyone?! That you'll sacrifice yourself even if it meant saving others?"

The blond winced, "That was a low blow, Kirito."

"Even if that wasn't possible, didn't you have some sort of secret? We both know that you have been doing those little so called experiments of yours on the game's systems for nearly a year now, so don't tell me you have nothing. Another set of blades hiding up your pants? Or maybe even another weak point in the ceiling?"

Cloudy blue eyes narrowed, "That was a once off thing. I couldn't do it again even if you asked me to."

"Why not?" The gaze was penetrating, "Because Kayaba Akihiko finally got tired of you disobeying him and showing off without his permission and stopped helping you?"

The silence was almost deadly as the blond instantly went ashen and that was more damning that anything else the raven haired male could have said.

"You don't even have to try and defend yourself because I can prove that you just lied. Something you've probably been doing to us from the very beginning." The raven haired boy struggled to calm his breathing, "I checked you know, I ran down every floor and scaled the walls myself just so that I could hit the ceiling. I found the same cube shaped weak point that was on the twenty fifth floor in the fourth, tenth and seventeenth floor's Boss Chambers, that means you could have just finished those Bosses off without losing anybody doesn't it?" He said with a heated look at the blond before it swept over to the stunned girls, "Then, for a solid month, I spent nearly all my free time tracing down your little experiments to see if it was possible to do without reasonable prior knowledge. Knowing that those things were there simply wasn't possible unless you knew beforehand. You KNEW they were there, even BEFORE we began playing this death trap!"

The wooden table under his fist began creaking as he exerted even more force to stop his fist from trembling, "When you exploited the Crafting Skills to make your bow and explosives I thought it was just simple experimentation. After all, combining several elements of the game in ways they were not meant to be used in order to seek an advantage is fairly standard behaviour for any good Player. When I realized that you had a modified Nerve Gear, again I figured it was just a coincidence, but when I put everything you've done together, I realized something. It was given to you by Kayaba as a reward wasn't it? What is your role in this game? Are you a Game Sage that tests the game's loopholes before reporting to him?"

"If I was, those exploits would be instantly closed, why would I go and publish them instead?" Naruto growled.

"Then tell me. Does it feel good? Acting the White Knight in front of all us all the while you and Kayaba snicker behind our backs?"

Naruto drew a deep breath, "I won't, can't, deny that Kayaba sought me out to help him with the programming in exchange for an irresistible reward," He ignored the sound of Lightning dropping her sword and shield in shock, "But I never knew what he planned to do with the game… If I knew…"

"The thing is, Naruto, you've always tried to present this rational, kind, leader-like aura to everyone around you to draw people to you and help them work together." There was a slight hint of regret in the dark haired boy's words, "I won't say it didn't work, the fact that we have a workable system going on while we try to get out of this god forsaken place is proof enough, but the longer I knew you, the more I was certain that it was all a simple façade. The man I called my friend never really existed in the first place. Your words right now, are worth less than nothing to me."

The dark haired boy shoved the chair away from him and stalked to the room where an unconscious Sachi was resting. As he slammed open the door, Tamamo who had been sitting at her bedside and watching out for her jumped and glared at the raven haired boy. Kirito simply ignored her stare. The moment he had set his eyes on Sachi's sleeping face; a ball of utter dread filled his throat.

How could he face not just her, but Keita when he had failed to rein Ducker and the others in?

If they had known his true level, would they have accepted him anyway?

If they knew that he had been responsible for the deaths of more than 50 people because he had been careless, wouldn't they have shunned him?

He chuckled humourlessly, not that that last point would have mattered. Now that he had let Ducker, Sasamaru and Tetsuo die, they were going to shun him anyway. Silently, he glided over to the sleeping girl and slipped his hands underneath her, hefting her up with ease.

As he exited the room, unaware that Tamamo was following him, and back into the dining room where the four of them were still standing like statues. He gave Naruto's downcast expression one last look, "That's about as far as it goes for a friendship built on lies, Naruto."

He resolutely turned around and left the small cottage on the seventh floor permanently.

Serah gave the three KoB members a worried glance before she hurried to follow Kirito, as far as she was concerned, Kirito needed more help dealing with everything than Naruto.

"Was what Kirito-kun said correct, Naruto?" the auburn haired girl who was leaning on the wall in shock asked feebly, "You really helped program this place?"

**Play ****Limp Bizkit – Behind Blue Eyes**

"Only the basic parts," Naruto admitted just as softly, his shoulders sagging heavily, "He didn't trust me with the more complicated parts and for good reason. I had the feeling that he was hiding something from me and I knew that he would detect any back doors I programmed into the system, so I only changed marginal values that anyone would overlook. Small tactical points that would give me an advantage as well as an understanding of the underlying principles that Aincrad operated on. At first I did it because I knew it would give me an advantage in the game, so that I would be exactly what Kirito said, a white, shining leader to the other gamers. But that was while I still thought that it would be a normal subscription MMO... By the time I realized what was happening, it was already too late."

"How could we trust you?" Lightning finally spoke hoarsely, trying to come to terms with the feeling of utter betrayal, "When you basically just admitted that everything Kirito said is right?"

The blond lowered his head with a truly injured expression. Every single one of her words hit him like battering ram, "If I could let you and Serah out of the game right now, I would do that in a heartbeat." His voice was so weak it was barely a hoarse whisper.

"I don't know Naruto, I honestly don't." She had a troubled look on her face, "I always thought it was out of sheer coincidence that you had such an eclectic set of skills that suited for everything we've faced so far. Your grandmother taught you how to use a bow, your sister taught you how to cook and clean, you worked for a wood carver and some nice friendly couple taught you how to use a sword, but right now, I'm wondering how much of that is true, and how much of that is pure bovine droppings that you dreamed up to cover the fact that **you helped** make this damned cage and already had the skills to take advantage of it. Kirito has a point, even if you don't seem like the kind to enjoy something like this; you might be in this entire thing, getting off on being able to play Hero with a wannabe God's permission." She drew in a deep shaky breath to strengthen her resolve, "If it was before this, I would say that the Naruto I know isn't that sort of person, but it seems like that person wasn't real to start with. Even then, you put my sister in jeopardy, that's not something I can forgive, ever."

He looked the two of them in the eye, his mouth opened and closed weakly, but he didn't know what to say.

"Why did you hide it, something huge like this?" The agitated Lightning massaged her temples, "Sure I can understand wanting to lie about your looks or something but the fact that you were the maker of this prison? This isn't a crack in a house of glass, Naruto, this is a freaking wrecking ball."

"And die without a chance to heal my sister?" the haggard looking blond retorted with a dry snort, "You've seen how the idiots treated the Beta testers. Can you honestly see me go out there and tell everyone that I helped make this place? I'd get stoned within seconds."

"Your sister?" Asuna who had been deathly silent the entire time looked up as she realized something, "Does this have something to do with the offer that you were talking about?"

He flinched.

_A boy was soaked in what seemed a sea of blood, cradling his adopted sister's body with a frighteningly broken smile on his face crooned a few sentences over and over again as he stroked her hair._

"_It's alright nee-san." As they approached the 5 year old carefully, they heard him whispering a few words again and again like a mantra, "The dogs aren't barking anymore." _

_Behind him, the dismembered corpses of two men lay in several pieces._

The blonde was quiet for the longest, most drawn out minute that Asuna had ever experienced and when he finally spoke again, there was obscure of utter pain and longing in his voice, "My adopted sister was involved in an… accident. Because of the trauma, she had to be put in a coma to heal. But she never woke up. By the time the year was over, the doctors had all but given up hope on her ever waking up. Kayaba came to me and offered me a way to get my sister back. By placing an A.I. to observe and gather the emotions and circumstances, it would arrange those experiences into a neuro structure that most closely resembles my sister's personality before we mapped it into her brain using a high intensity Nerve Gear. That was why I wanted to be the best, most upstanding and noble person in the game… "

"So that the A.I would pick up the positive emotions and record it accordingly?" Lightning deduced seriously, "And the only place it would have been possible is Sword Art Online because we're all linked in directly, along with our emotions."

The White Archer nodded slowly, "Of course, at the time, I only thought that this was a normal MMO. At the time, I swore that I would spend all day in the game to make sure it was a good place…." He chuckled wryly, "Who knew I would get my wish in the most horrible way imaginable."

He blinked, "Wait, you **believe** me?"

"I… want to believe you," Éclair said softly as she gingerly wrapped one arm around a catatonic Asuna's shoulders, "I'm sorry… but we need some time."

A long time after the two of them had left; the blond stayed at the dining table slumped in his chair as he stared out the window with dead eyes. When Tamamo whimpered at him the blond only smiled weakly and reached out to gently grasp her hand and kiss it softly before he went back to his contemplation of the window.

She had never seen him look so frail.

The two of them sat like that in silence until someone knocked on the door.

Mechanically, he slowly got up and stiffly walked to the door.

"Ruto-chan, you _HAVE _to help me! That crazy Guild mate of yours won't leave me alone," Argo's hair was messy and her eyes wildly looked around the forest, "The crazy bastard keeps saying I'm the most beautiful woman he's ever seen goddammit!"

The blond blinked and forced a smile onto his face, "Gui? Why don't you just accept it?"

Argo shot him a dry look, "I'll pay you."

"Now we're talking." Naruto noted as he made to close the door when another person hurtled into him.

"Gah! Get off me Kline!" Caught in a bear hug, all the blond could do was wriggle uselessly as Argo stared at them incredulously.

"I broke up with her, him! I don't believe I did that!" the red head keep sobbing in the archer's vest.

Naruto sighed as the man's clamp on his ribs got almost painful, "Why don't you let me go, Kline. I'm going to cook something for all of us, and then the two of you can tell me what's going on."

"O-Oh… I'm sorry." Hastily, the katana user drew back with a sheepish look.

"It's alright. Why don't you go to the hall and play with Tamamo?"

Even if he was falling apart at the seams, he still had something to do and a promise to keep.

Even if the persons he made the promise to currently wanted to use his guts as a trash bag.

******The Hunter******

Naruto stood alone in a clearing. The sun had long since set and only the dim light of a flickering fire filled the clearing, but the blond mechanically slashed a tree with a chain whip. He ignored the chips of wood that flew from the ever deepening gash he had just made and listlessly repeated the manoeuvre with no energy whatsoever.

"Would you care to have a spar with me?"

"No thanks." Naruto said bluntly as he continued to mindlessly whack away at the tree.

"There's a saying that I'm quite fond of, 'In order to examine your foundation and propel you to greater heights, destruction is necessary.'"

"I have a saying for you too, 'fuck off.'"

Heathcliff sighed dryly, "I don't understand you. You knew from the beginning that there was always the risk of them finding out and abandoning you, that's why you kept away. So why are you faltering now?"

"Which part of **Fuck. Off.** Did you not get? Was it the **Fuck**, or the **Off**?"

The man in the red robes examined the White Archer with keen eyes, "Ahh… I see. You didn't expect it to be quite this painful in practice did you?"

"You want to know what painful is, Heathcliff? Cos I'm THIS close to murdering you right now, and if I know my brother, he's already told you what I'm capable off."

Heathcliff laughed, "You haven't fallen that far yet, Joker. Not nearly far enough. Fall until you can't fall anymore, Joker, then and only then can you stand back up again."

Heathcliff quite calmly withstood the whip that violently lashed out at him, cutting a deep scar in his cheek. Without waiting for a reply, the man shrugged of his robe and burst forward, his sword immediately scoring a deep gash in the blond's chest before he swung the shield.

"You are slow, Joker. In here, the mind reigns above all but yours is clouded."

Naruto staggered backwards, barely avoiding the shield bash and lashed out with his whip again but Heathcliff danced aside and knocked the whip out of the blond's hand before smashing him on the chin with his shield.

The blond sailed through the air before he landed on his back with a grunt.

His shield and sword barely came together in time to catch the curved sword, the steel sparked violently between the two of them. Grunting, Heathcliff kicked him backwards and the blond hit the ground again. His legs wobbled as he slowly got up with a growl, "What do you want, Heathcliff?"

"I want to understand you, or rather the change in you. From what I've heard about you, you were practically one step short of begging everyone to like you, just so that you didn't feel like air. Work as underpaid wood carver? No problem. Entertain a lonely couple even if your sister was in the hospital? No problem! As long as they put up with your annoying existence, you would do anything with that stupid smile on your face! So why is this so different?"

**Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Libera me from Hell**

Heathcliff spun and slammed his shield into Joker's chest, sending him flying again.

This time he crashed and didn't move again.

On his back, the world seemed to spin as his brain burned as if it was being filled by liquid fire. A throbbing pain pounded behind his eyes and there was a sour taste in his mouth. He had never felt so raw and beaten in his entire life.

"You were one of the most passive, kindest, biggest pushovers your brother knew, so utterly willing to sacrifice yourself as long as it meant another person wouldn't be hurt and yet here you are. You actually lost your temper when Asuna-san was endangered, enough for you to unveil your trump card a little too early, at the wrong time and to the wrong people no less. How are you changing when your Soul isn't here?"

The blond twitched and he slowly began to crawl up again with a titanic effort and the White Archer began to fight back.

"It's the same, either way, I am a selfish bastard, only now, I'm using that selfishness in a different way,"

Heathcliff blinked as a large scythe materialized in the blond's hands with a shower of pink lights. Its ragged edges gleamed in the dim fire light, with one mighty swing and a defiant roar, the edge bit in his shield. The strike was so powerful that Heathcliff had to brace himself with both his sword and shield as the Archer growled at him, "Even if our souls are back where our bodies are meant to be, every experience we have had here is etched into our personalities. Shaping our neural pathways, these circumstances, they are what shapes our souls. And our Souls are here, in this game right now, and you can't quantify that with programming."

"You are Changing, putting your own needs above others, planning and executing. I need to know, what sparked your drive?"

Heathcliff lurched forward as the blond suddenly let go of the huge scythe, daggers appeared his hands, and shot forwards at the unbalanced Heathcliff.

"I was changing even before I came here, you fool." Naruto spat, clearly he had overestimated his brother's power of observation, "That's what it means to be human, to change and evolve, bit by bit every day. I have so many things that I desire, but right now, the thing I desire most IS YOUR HEAD!"

Heathcliff baulked as the daggers came dangerously close to severing his neck, only his shield saved him as he smashed it into the daggers before they could decapitate him, snapping the blades with a screech.

They were instantly replaced by a pair of katanas, and the air around them almost seemed to blur with grey steel, a deadly dance that was barely visible to the naked eye. Before his very eyes, the blond's sagging and drained expression slowly vanished under a red hot fury as he pushed the sword and shield user back.

"How much will you change? Can you exceed even the programming that limits us? That stops your brain from overloading and burning out?" Even under increasing pressure, he still sounded so innocently curious.

The two katanas shattered with a loud wrench of steel and the archer's hands almost automatically dipped into his cloak again.

Almost instinctively, Heathcliff readied himself for a blade of some sort when contrary to his expectations, Naruto suddenly jumped and simply jack knifed him in the chin in a classic feint.

Landing on his back, Naruto groaned before he began to stand up again with heavy pants, "This is an online game, no one ever really trusts one another here, even if we're all wearing our own faces, we all still have our own secrets that we don't want anyone to know and most importantly, we're all still watching out for ourselves but we can't stay that way. I've already seen what these lies can do, and I will atone for them."

Heathcliff landed just as roughly, his eyes spun a little at the impact to his chin, "Tho-those are just words, you know as well as I do that if you tell everyone right now, you WILL die by the time the sun rises. That's why this entire time you've tried to stay away, you knew what would happen. You prepared yourself to be hated." Both of them were already at their limits as they stood up again on opposite sides of the clearing, "You didn't care if you were burnt to ashes, as long as you atoned for everything you have done. They have already left you, how are you going to get them back?"

Naruto grinned, "I don't know, but I do know I have to do something."

"_What's wrong Na-chan? Why are you sitting in the dark like this?"_

"… _Nii-san said I didn't belong here…"_

_The girl sighed, "What did that idiot say now?" _

"…_. He said I was pitiful. No matter how I try, I'm always going to be a blank canvas and I would never belong anywhere… He's going to send me back to the orphanage again. "_

"_Ignore that idiot. He's just jealous I've been spending more time with you." _

"_But I'm scared that he was right… I am a weak person Nee-chan, I've always been. My life so far has been like blank canvas. I don't have a proper start like you or the other kids at school. I don't even know who my parents were and there's nothing to look forward to. I am and will always be a blank canvas unlike you two." _

"_That's fine too, Na-chan. All you have to do is stand in the middle and smile. Even if you only have a blank canvas, as long as you keep smiling that bright smile will draw people around you, and everyone you meet will be a splash of paint on that canvas. Even if it is filled with bleak colours, it will mix with the bright colours and slowly become a work of art."_

"_Will I really?"_

_The older girl smiled, it was a faint smile but to the small flaxen haired child, it seemed like her smile could match the beauty of the stars above them, "I know you will. In fact, I'll be your first splash of paint, I'll be white."_

_The small child wrinkled his nose cutely, "What's the difference from that and a blank canvas then? Why not orange? Orange is good."_

"_Maybe you'll understand in time." _

Blazing blue eyes looked up as Naruto set his jaw.

"**HEEEEATTTHHHCLIFFFFFFF!" **

The brown haired man smiled viciously as he gave an answering call, **"JOOOOOOOOOOOOOKERRR!"**

Time almost seemed to slow for the two fighters. Their gazes were so focused on each other's eyes that the world seemed to melt away as Naruto slowly drew his last spear back and took a stance.

The Paladin's shield hit the ground with a loud rattling clank as Heathcliff summarily dropped it to pull every ounce of speed that he could afford and hurtled towards the blond.

The stance that Naruto was taking was familiar, if it hit, it would guarantee his death.

His muscles seemed to tense as the world narrowed down to one point and he put all his strength behind his sword.

It was powerful, but a Spear Skill like that obviously came with a long charge time, even now; his sharp eyes absently noted the red wisps of energy that seemed to coalesce around the spear.

It came down to which one of them was faster.

Would Naruto fire first, or would Heathcliff reach him first, but he had an advantage.

Naruto had miscalculated something, because he was using a spear as an arrow, Heathcliff didn't need to reach him, just get near enough to stop him from readjusting his unwieldy spear-arrow's aim.

Brown eyes narrowed triumphantly as Heathcliff saw the glint of realization dawning in his sky blue orbs.

The spear flew, a little earlier than expected.

Almost in slow motion, Heathcliff threw himself at the blond as the rocketing spear slowly grazed his cheek before flying away uselessly while Naruto stood there helplessly, frozen by the cool down time.

A hint of hesitation flashed across Heathcliff's expression as he realized that despite his helplessness, the defiant spark in those clear blue eyes had not dimmed.

If anything, they burned even brighter and it…. scared him.

Surging forward with a raging battle cry as if challenging the indecision within him, the point of his glowing sword plunged into the Archer's left eye.

"I won!-**BLAM!"**

Before Heathcliff could complete his victory, a tree fell on him with a massive crash.

Naruto, ignoring the sword in his eye, glanced at his Guild Leader who was squashed underneath a tree, with an amused smile. A few yards directly behind Heathcliff, the smoking spear that he had avoided had pierced the trunk of a large tree, hitting the deep gash that Naruto had cut earlier dead centre before shearing the rest of the way through, and as a result, the spear had torn the rest of the way through, sending its top heavy half onto the hapless Paladin.

"You weren't aiming for me were you? You never really were."

"I was looking beyond you."

******The Hunter******

**Post edit, Kishi: **Phew, long chapter.

**Game Sage – Community Volunteer to monitor the players, usually one step below an actual Game Master that directly works for the company. **

**Omake **

A muffled voice asked from underneath all the leaves, "That's why you were using something that took so long to charge. I thought it was weird."

"Something like that." Naruto admitted as he pulled the sword out of his head.

"This entire time…" Heathcliff spluttered as if he had just realized something, "You've been moving us into the perfect position so you could hit it while I was so focused on you and drop it on me."

"I knew I couldn't beat you in an even fight," Naruto shrugged, an ugly red scar filled with swirling blue lights ran from his temple to his empty eye socket, "Now; you were saying something about winning?"

"The rules are clear, I hit you first." Heathcliff protested with some embarrassment. "Besides, you didn't beat me, the tree did!"

"Of course it did…. But are you** sure** you want me to tell everyone that you lost a fight with a tree?"

"That's blackmail!" He growled.

"You can call it that if it makes you feel better. I'm sure you're going to need all the comfort you can get under that tree when the rest come back."

"…..Fine… now can you get me out from under here?!" The brown haired man demanded gruffly.

"Not until you tell me what you learnt today." Naruto replied in an insulting sing song tone as if he was talking to a child.

"…What more do you WANT?!" Heathcliff rasped, "You already have my dignity!"

"It's getting dark…." Naruto idly selected something from his inventory, "I wonder what's for dinner."

Then just to make it even more insulting, Heathcliff could hear the blond munching on his thrice damned peanuts.

Swearing under his breath, he groaned quietly and surrendered, "I learnt," Heathcliff bit out, "that if you start a fight with Joker, he's going to cheat unless everything around him is nailed or bolted down, and even then, he's STILL going to find a way to drop _something _unpleasant on you."

"I was actually thinking something along the lines of; _I will not let my guard down before I am sure that Joker will not ram another long, hard and phallic object up my behind again," _Naruto said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes as he patted the downed tree, "But I guess that will have to do."

"Thank Kami there are no steamrollers in this game." Heathcliff groaned, "I wouldn't put it past you not to find a way to drop it on people."

"I'm sure we can improvise if you really want to experience it. It might take a while, but I'm sure I'd be able to carve one made of wood."

"Just get me out of here." Heathcliff sighed.

At least the blond wasn't depressed anymore, although the brown haired man wasn't entirely sure the humiliation was worth it.

******The Hunter******


End file.
